Thank you for your question.
What I talked about wasn't necessarily tax avoidance, but rather the idea of tax fairness. It was the particular case of e-commerce. We heard, in particular, about the comments of an economic leader in our community, Peter Simons. Mr. Simons said that in terms of online marketing, he was penalized compared to merchants in other countries, given that some foreign products sold online were not subject to GST and QST. In such a context, we are talking about an inequity that affects the competitiveness of our companies.
I'm not an expert in this field. Still, research has shown that some countries have adopted policies. If you like, we can discuss it and send you a list of what has been done. However, it must be admitted that, as part of the OECD recommendation, the OECD recommended that suppliers should be those that levy the tax in the country where the product is purchased. Economic leaders in our community have repeatedly said that there is absolutely no equity in this regard. This comment is addressed to both the federal and Quebec governments.
We therefore hope that the two levels of government will work together to find a solution to this dilemma, which will become more and more problematic. E-commerce is growing rapidly, to avoid using other adjectives. This is a very important issue. I reiterate that, for our part, we will pay particular attention to the initiatives that will be implemented in the next budget.