Merci beaucoup. Thank you, Mr. Chair.

Canada's credit unions and caisses populaires manage almost $702 billion worth of assets and serve over 11 million Canadians and more than 20% of our country's small businesses. With over 2,000 credit union locations, we are the only financial institution with a physical presence in around 350 communities. Credit unions and regional centrals employ over 30,000 Canadians and provide full service financial solutions, while being fully Canadian owned.

Removing barriers to interprovincial trade has been on the agenda in Ottawa and in the provinces for decades. It's encouraging to finally see concrete progress on this issue, which has been a major irritant and barrier to economic growth for so long. To the extent that the problem lies with federal policy, this bill will address many barriers inhibiting increased trade and mobility between the provinces and regions of the country.

As we all know, though, much of the work will have to take place at the provincial level, where we are also seeing good progress which we hope continues.

I would like to address an issue of concern for the credit union and broader financial sector that is not in the bill. It is regarding continued barriers facing provincially regulated financial institutions, like credit unions, looking to conduct business outside of their home province. As it stands, most credit unions are confined to their province of origin and are regulated by their respective provinces, not OSFI here in Ottawa. As such, they face major restrictions on growing assets, deposits and membership outside of their provinces. The option to go federal has existed since 2012, but in those 13 years, only three credit unions have successfully completed the process. Another has gone through the process and is awaiting final approval from OSFI and the Finance Minister, which we hope happens this year.

The reason so few have taken this route is due to the extreme complexity, uncertainty of the process, and the amount of time and human and financial resources that it consumes. Today, it takes up to six to eight years for a provincially regulated credit union to become federal and thus regulated by OSFI, during which time the credit union seeking to go federal is effectively prevented from pursuing other avenues of growth. As a result, at the moment, the option to be regulated federally is not attractive or, frankly, accessible to most credit unions.

To make this option more accessible to credit unions seeking to operate outside of their provincial borders, we urge the government to introduce other options for federal credit union growth, including asset transactions between federally and provincially regulated credit unions, and to ensure that OSFI's guidance for credit unions wishing to pursue the federal option, which is now over a decade old, is updated.

The limitations on credit union operations beyond provincial borders represent not just a brake on the growth of our sector, but also a barrier to further trade and mobility between the provinces. As provincial credit unions cannot operate outside their home province, if an individual or small business wants to move or expand operations across provincial lines, they need to go through the process of setting up a new relationship, in most cases with a large bank. This not only is a barrier to interprovincial trade but also acts as a major barrier to greater competition in financial services for all Canadians and is a force for further market consolidation among the large six banks.

In conclusion, we have been in discussions with OSFI and the Department of Finance about this problem. We had hoped to see some language in this bill that at least acknowledges the problem and commits the Department of Finance and OSFI to shortening the path for provincial credit unions looking to go federal.

We hope this committee will consider this as it studies Bill C-5 and contemplates further legislation in this Parliament.

Thank you, Mr. Chair, and I look forward to your questions.