Proceedings of the Standing Senate Committee on
National Finance

Issue 15 - Twelfth Report of the Committee

Tuesday, June 17, 2014

The Standing Senate Committee on National Finance has the honour to present its

TWELFTH REPORT

Your committee, to which was referred Bill C-31, An Act to implement certain provisions of the budget tabled in Parliament on February 11, 2014 and other measures, has, in obedience to the order of reference of Monday, June 16, 2014, examined the said bill and now reports the same without amendment.

Your committee has also made certain observations, which are appended to this report.

Respectfully submitted,

JOSEPH A. DAY

Chair

OBSERVATIONS
to the Twelfth Report of the
Standing Senate Committee National Finance
(Bill C-31)

Part 6, Division 14 - Insurance Companies Act

The Minister of Finance should, after consulting the parties involved, consider establishing principles concerning property rights on accumulated surpluses before establishing the rules for the demutualization of Economical or of any mutual property and casualty insurance company because property rights on accumulated surpluses are not clearly defined at this time. If the courts are asked to intervene, they should make sure that all stakeholders (among others, mutual property and casualty insurance companies, cooperatives, insurance brokers and their associations) are able to present their case on the divisibility or indivisibility of these surpluses since the community as a whole could be impacted by any such rulings.

Part 6, Division 25 — Amendments Relating to International Treaties on Trademarks

We want to underline the quality and quantity of concerns expressed by the business community and intellectual property rights experts on the withdrawal of the written declaration of use when registering a trademark in Canada. In the absence of any outside positive testimony on this matter, it is difficult to evaluate the overall benefit for Canada of the withdrawal of the written declaration of use.