Thank you, Mr. Chair.
It's funny. If there were a definition of “hypocrisy” in the dictionary, it would probably include this motion.
I sat here in this meeting while the Conservatives wasted hour after hour. They read from a podcast in order to delay the work of this committee, as this committee—the Liberals, the NDP and the Bloc Québécois—tried to get at the very issues that Mr. Hallan just talked about. The Conservatives wasted meeting after meeting in a flight of fancy to do things like calling Mark Carney because they think he's going to be the next Liberal leader.
Instead of focusing on the cost of living increase, on hunger in communities in this country, on passing a budget and on bringing in tax credits for businesses across this country, the Conservatives delayed every one of those for their own partisan flights of fancy, when they could have been getting at those real issues.
Here they are now, on one of the last meetings of the year—a meeting that they insisted on to study the capital gains inclusion rate, which all parties supported because we do want to hear from witnesses—and they're wasting time, in the last hour, when we have witnesses here to give evidence. This is classic. “Common sense” isn't coming to conclusions without data or science. That's the opposite of common sense; that's ridiculousness.
To hear Mr. Hallan talk about the job-killing capital gains measure.... We just started the study; we're into it an hour and a half. The evidence I'm hearing is frankly to the contrary of that. We haven't heard any real evidence of any impact whatsoever. In fact, we have economists here telling us that there will be zero impact on job creation in this country from this capital gains measure. However, of course, the Conservatives don't let facts get in the way of conclusions. They've already made up their minds on this.
I'm sorry, Mr. Chair. I'm hearing catcalling from the side while I have the mike, and it's difficult. I didn't yell and talk when they were talking.