Thank you, Mr. Chair.
As far as I know, the Quebec tax system is much more progressive than the federal one. In theory, I can understand the argument, but when we look at the facts, that's not what we are talking about.
In any case, it's a bit off topic. The goal of the bill is not to harmonize and tell the federal government that its tax brackets should be the same as in Quebec. The goal is for taxpayers and businesses in Quebec to have only one tax return to file and a single telephone number to dial, instead of two. What is more, Revenu Québec will transfer information to the Canada Revenue Agency, and every piece of legislation will apply. We are not asking the federal government to harmonize its taxes or its tax rules with those in Quebec. We are not talking about that at all. I just wanted to clarify this.
Earlier, Mr. Julian reminded us of Mr. Therrien's comments. I know my colleague Mr. Therrien very well. He took a bit of a shortcut in what he said. What we are discussing and what motivates us in this bill is the idea of using resources more efficiently—for example, by avoiding the duplication of work by Canada Revenue Agency employees and Revenu Québec employees.
As for job losses, mention has been made of 1,200 and 1,500 jobs. However, I don't think all those jobs would be threatened. It's just a matter of ensuring, for the sake of efficiency, that two people are not doing the same job. In the bill as drafted, job maintenance is one of the requests made to the government. Those people could be given other tasks and integrated into the Quebec public service. The bill was drafted according to that logic. Ottawa would be making the political decision after that. Of course, I am very sensitive to the fact that jobs should be maintained in the regions.
I would like to share my remaining time with Mr. Sylvestre if he would like to talk to us about establishing a single tax return and about issues he considers most important in this bill.