Taxation  Mr. Speaker, John Diefenbaker is from Saskatchewan, where there are lots of farmers. The member will not commit to amend her law to exempt carpenters or plumbers or retiring modest-income independent restaurant owners, so I have a very simple question. Given we are in a food price crisis, will the finance minister amend her proposal to say that no farmer will pay higher taxes under this plan?

Taxation  Mr. Speaker, I know that the Liberals are demanding I stop asking questions. I can understand why; the finance minister has gone into hiding and stopped answering them. She has claimed that no one except the richest 0.13% will pay any new tax, but the greatest university economist in Canada, Jack Mintz, has reported that 1.25 million will pay.

Taxation  Mr. Speaker, we are simply asking the minister to put her words in law. She has claimed that no one who earns less than the top 0.13% of income in the country would be affected. Once again, will she amend her bill to say that no one who is in the bottom 99.87% of income earners would pay any new tax increase whatsoever, yes or no?

Taxation  Mr. Speaker, I am just quoting right now from the minister's own budget speech, where she said that for 99.87% of Canadians there will be no extra capital gains tax. She put it in her speech, so why will she not put it in the law?

Taxation  Mr. Speaker, I see they have pulled the finance minister off the ice. She cannot answer a question. The minister will not guarantee in law that the bottom 99.87% of Canadians will pay nothing, so let us make it a little bit easier for her. She claimed that she does not want welders to have to pay more.

Taxation  Mr. Speaker, are they okay over there?

Taxation  I will not call them wacko, Mr. Speaker; that is unparliamentary. I just have a very simple question. This is for the finance minister, if she is not still in hiding. The finance minister said she does not want welders to have to pay more. Will she put an amendment in her tax bill to say that not one single welder would face a tax increase?

Taxation  Mr. Speaker, the Bloc Québécois is now condemning the same tax hike it just voted for. Talk about flip-flopping. The minister says that welders would not have to pay the tax; only the 0.13% wealthiest would. Well, all the economists contradict that. The fact that there are 300,000 businesses that she admits would be taxed, and all of their owners would be taxed, contradicts that as well.

Taxation  Mr. Speaker, I think we should just put aside the disagreement and even the debate on this. Let us come to a resolution here that will bring a lot of calm to the millions of Canadians who are worried about their taxes going up. The minister claims that only the 0.13% wealthiest Canadians would pay, so why not just enshrine that in law?

The Economy  Mr. Speaker, nine years ago, the Prime Minister promised that taxing and spending more would make everything fair. Since then, Canada has had the worst growth in the G7, the worst in Canada's history since the Great Depression. Housing costs have doubled, rising faster than any other G7 country, so 76% of youth believe they will never be able to afford a home.

The Economy  Mr. Speaker, the member mentions welders. Welders start businesses, which are among the 300,000 small businesses that are targeted by the tax, according to the minister's own published documents, so those welders will pay a 66% tax on their investments. The same welders who build the homes that we are going to need—

The Economy  Mr. Speaker, the member mentions welders. Welders incorporate. They start small businesses, welding businesses that build things. They weld products that go into apartment complexes in which people live. Therefore, when the member taxes the small businesses that help us build the housing, she not only kills jobs for those welders but she also actually kills housing when we are in a housing shortage.

The Economy  Mr. Speaker, taxing farmers during a food crisis, taxing home builders during a housing crisis, taxing away doctors during a health care crisis and taxing small businesses during an economic growth crisis is economic vandalism and nothing less. That is precisely why the minister has given us the worst growth in the G7, the worst growth for the next 40 years projected by the OECD and 256 homeless encampments in her hometown.

Taxation  Mr. Speaker, yesterday, the Bloc Québécois voted for another Liberal tax hike that will take Quebeckers' money and give it to this Prime Minister's centralizing government. After the vote, the Prime Minister literally thanked them by giving them a thumbs-up. Is that what the “Liberal Bloc” is all about: less money for Quebec home builders, business owners, doctors and entrepreneurs, and more money for the massive Liberal federal government?

Taxation  Mr. Speaker, this Bloc-backed tax hike is taking money away from doctors, forcing Quebec doctors to move away. Quebec's regions will lose doctors. During a cost of living crisis and a food price crisis, the Bloc Québécois voted to tax farmers even more. The Bloc Québécois voted for a tax on home builders.