Finance committee  Okay. The two topics are related. I just said that we pay 30% more in Canada for our drugs than the average of the OECD countries. In Quebec, it's 8% more compared with the rest of Canada. So this is a real issue that needs to be a priority. Industrial policies that were put in

Finance committee  Thank you for this opportunity. Yes, we have several requests in that area. For example, I was speaking earlier about increasing the number of tax brackets for individuals. It would also be a good idea to increase the basic tax exemption, considering the real costs of the liveli

Finance committee  Thank you for the question. You're talking about encouraging women to return to the labour market. I'd also like to say that I'm pleased to see that there are more women among the members present than among the guests here today, of which I am the sole woman. As for the transfe

Finance committee  Are you talking about the low taxation of businesses?

Finance committee  Clearly, because we see from year to year that the reduction of the tax base is supported by the businesses. This means that to balance the government budget, money needs to come from other people and, right now, the money is coming from workers, individuals. By looking at the le

Finance committee  Perfect. We can see that, starting in 2013, the federal treasury is going to deprive itself of $5 billion dollars annually. In our view, that is a huge amount and the government should not keep lowering corporate taxes. Similarly, in terms of international tax competition, Cana

Finance committee  Good morning. Thank you for inviting us to share our views on the directions in the upcoming federal budget. I will start by briefly introducing our organization. The Union des consommateurs is a federation made up of several family economics cooperative associations (ACEF), wh

Human Resources committee  I fully agree with the idea of extending the number of benefit weeks, but the fact remains that this does not make people who are currently ineligible any more eligible for benefits. Those people are still without any income, although eligible individuals will be able to receive

Human Resources committee  Could I—

Human Resources committee  We have not done any calculations, but I know that the costs would certainly be lower than the amount of money that has been accumulating in the Employment Insurance Fund and which has been diverted for other purposes. One of our suggestions for funding the proposed EI reforms i

Human Resources committee  We talked today about what the federal government can do to fight poverty. I said that provincial transfers must be increased. That way, whether the money is invested properly or not, a provincial standing committee will be able to get involved and talk about it. Your colleague

Human Resources committee  I would simply like to clarify something because, Mr. Komarnicki, you opened a door earlier that I would like to close. We are not against tax measures—quite the opposite; we are against the fact that certain tax measures, such as non-refundable tax credits, or some other tax exp

Human Resources committee  Yes, the 40% of people who do not pay income tax are still giving money to the government in the form of other taxes they pay or contributions to various programs. They are contributing to the Treasury. There are a number of measures, in our opinion. In fact, we have noted a tre

Human Resources committee  Thank you.

Human Resources committee  Yes. I think we need to look at the fact that people are solicited without ever asking for a credit card, opening the door to all sorts of other types of credit. There is also a parallel credit market that needs to be monitored, one that especially affects low-income Canadians wh