Thank you, Mr. Chair.
I want to start by thanking all of the witnesses for their participation today and their opening statements. They were very informative. It is clear that not everyone supports this idea; it could even be called contentious.
I want to follow up on what Mr. Couillard just said. With all due respect, the bill seeks Ottawa's agreement to give Revenu Québec the necessary authority to administer the regime and thus access the tax information exchanged with other countries. It's not that complicated. It would merely involve sending the countries a letter to inform them of the change. The federal government could notify Barbados, for example, that Quebec's revenue agency was now authorized to receive the information.
When it comes to cracking down on tax havens, whether legal or illegal, Canada unfortunately scores quite low for its efforts. We are bringing forward this bill precisely so the Quebec government can do a better job of fighting against tax evasion. The blame does not lie with any CRA employee; it lies with the federal government and its political decisions. We believe this bill would help significantly in the fight against tax evasion and avoidance.
I would like to set the record straight for Mr. Berthold. He talked a lot about harmonization. This is my bill, and in no way, does it seek the federal government's permission to harmonize or change tax rates or anything of that sort. It's about making life easier for people by having them file a single tax return with Revenu Québec, which would then send the information to the CRA. This has nothing to do with eliminating all the jobs of CRA workers in Quebec. The idea is to establish a single window to make life easier for people. If people had questions, they would call Revenue Québec.
Under the bill, the federal government is being asked to undertake discussions with the Quebec government, within 90 days of the bill's passage, so the two governments can enter into an agreement within a year.
I was accused of bringing forward this bill because I belonged to a sovereignist party. While it is true that I am a sovereignist and that I believe Quebec would certainly be better off if Quebec, not its neighbour, managed Quebec's affairs, that's not at all what this bill is about. I support this bill because it has the unanimous support of Quebec's National Assembly, which unanimously adopted a motion calling for a single tax return, in fact. That means every member from the Liberal Party, the Coalition Avenir Québec, the Parti Québécois and Québec solidaire is in favour of a single tax return. Last week, I quoted the Québec solidaire critic on economic and fiscal matters, who expressed support for the initiative. Quebec's own premier, Mr. Legault, formally made the request to Mr. Trudeau. Can we not make life easier for people by allowing them to fill out a single tax return, as is the case everywhere else in Canada and in other countries?
Unless I'm mistaken, the House of Commons recognized Quebec as a nation. Can the Canadian nation, through the House of Commons, accommodate Quebec and agree to this request since it has the unanimous support of Quebec's National Assembly? Clearly, the whole issue is very political.
I also want to say that I am very sensitive when it comes to jobs. The idea behind the bill is, of course, to combine the jobs of two employees doing the same work, one at the provincial level and the other at the federal level, to save money. Those savings could be put towards hiring people in understaffed areas of the federal public service.
Mr. Sylvestre, in your opening statement, you mentioned examples in the past where jobs in other parts of the federal public service had been incorporated into Quebec's public service. Can you tell us about those examples? Take all the time you'd like.
