The Canadian Press

Finance Minister Jim Flaherty says G7 ministers need to work on a uniform approach to protect investors and taxpayers from risk-prone bankers.

Flaherty says the world can’t afford to have systemically important institutions — often referred to as “too big to fail” — thinking they can take crazy risks because they’ll be bailed out if their gambles come out wrong.

He made the comments today after leading some of his G7 colleagues on a dog-sled ride over frozen Frobisher Bay ahead of a meeting of finance ministers and central bankers.

Flaherty says several countries have advanced proposed solutions to preventing bank failures, but there needs to be a uniform approach.

He says he will be advocating the Canadian model of relatively robust bank capitalization requirements that proved successful during the recession.

Canada was one of the few of the G7 countries that was not obliged to bail out large banks in order to prevent a financial-system collapse.

Flaherty says the meeting will also try to tackle the problem of China’s devalued currency, which he said is contributing to global imbalances, and development issues, particularly in Haiti.