I see.
Ms. Potvin, last year, the combined net profit of Canada's six major oil companies was $12 billion, an increase of $5 billion over 2004. That is a 70% increase in net profit, a very large amount.
With the passage of Bill C-48, tax revenues paid to the federal government dropped, and will continue to drop over the next few years.
What sort of loss does that represent for the government? What impact has this legislation had on the federal government's tax revenues? Are we giving a large present to the oil companies? In my view, they don't really seem to need it. Why should they have paid less tax over the past three years and why should they pay less tax in the future?