Madam Speaker, as you see, this is a very relevant question, which shows us how deeply committed our colleague is. We have always had quite a clear position on this.
The opposition party operates on the principle that full employment has been possible in small countries which had all the instruments they needed to bring it about, but it is not possible in the Canadian context since two levels of government take action which is often contradictory.
We see now that countries with an unemployment rate of 3, 4 or 5 per cent, which is called frictional unemployment and is acceptable, are those which have acquired mechanisms for joint action and co-operation. They have been able to bring together around a table at the national level people from labour, management and professional corporations to set macro-economic objectives.
Of course, such a solution is not possible in the Canadian context because two levels of government are in competition without regard for efficiency.
The second solution that we think we can contribute concerns a thorny issue which is a disgrace for this government, namely family trusts. We know that plugging this loophole could save billions of dollars.
Finally, when it comes to corporate taxation, we see that companies pay less tax in Canada than in other OECD countries. We think that corporation taxation should be reviewed. If Mr. Martin were a courageous man-and we on this side of the House long ago realized that the Minister of Finance does not really qualify as courageous-he could have reviewed corporate taxation in February so that the government could collect the amounts which it is now lacking.
We have three approaches: one involves a political reconfiguration, one that will be possible when two sovereign states with all the powers they need can deal with each other as complete equals; this means sovereignty for Quebec and a redefinition of what English Canada should be. The second approach of course involves the tools at the finance minister's disposal, if he has political courage and integrity. Certainly,
when you form a national government as the Liberal Party does and you take money from your election fund so that your party can live, you get that money from the private sector and you have close ties to those people, so it is not easy for a finance minister to raise money for his party and also to revise the tax system in favour of the less fortunate. However, in Quebec, we do not have that problem, since we have passed legislation on democratic financing.