(May 24 – 18:10 ET) – The federal government’s long-awaited financial services reform bill has been delayed once again.
Finance Minister Paul Martin had planned to table the bill on June 1. But now his office says the bill, about 1,000 pages in length, won’t be tabled until June 8 at the earliest.
The bill, affecting everything from the Bank Act to the cheque clearance system, had originally been slated for introduction in February.
But drafting the bill, particularly language on financial holding companies, proved to be more difficult than the minister first envisioned.
This time the Department of Finance is satisfied with the bill. But the Department of Justice and the office of Government House Leader Don Boudria aren’t. They want technical changes to the bill’s text.
Government insiders also say there was less of a rush put on the bill when it became clear there would not be much chance for second reading before the House of Commons rises for the summer.
Second reading before Parliament rises for the summer would have cleared the way for clause-by-clause study of the bill at the committee level over the summer.
As a result, tabling of the bill before the house rises doesn’t make much difference for time length.
As a result, the bill is not likely to become law until well into the first half of 2001, a year before the next legally required review of the Bank Act and related legislation.
-Gord McIntosh