Mr. Speaker, when I hear Reform members making comments, I always ask myself whether they are aware that the party in power is not the Bloc Quebecois but the Liberal Party of Canada. They are always directing their attacks at the Bloc Quebecois; I do not know why, but I find it a little strange.
I also noted some insults that were directed at my party, at the work that each member of the Bloc Quebecois is doing and the seriousness with which we take our responsibilities as the Official Opposition, and I was deeply offended. Since the beginning, we have been doing what is expected of us in Quebec, and I would tell you, even in Canada in some respects, because some of our Canadian friends from the Maritimes, and even from western Canada and Ontario, speak very favourably about the work that my colleagues are doing as members of the official Opposition in this House. The same cannot be said about the Reformers. Even in western Canada, they are starting to loose ground, but that is their problem.
With all due respect for my colleague, who is also on the finance committee, I would have a question for him. If the Reform Party is so serious in its offensive, in its suggestions for improving Canadian public finance, why does it leave aside a whole section of taxation, a whole section of grants, too? Why is corporate taxation excluded? Why does the Reform Party refuse to even discuss corporate income taxes?
Why is it so dead set against it? Is it a definite mind set? Is it dogmatic? Why does it reject the review of tax conventions signed with tax havens, when the Auditor General, who is objective, and even Samson Bélair suggest that hundreds of millions are lost because of these infamous conventions which are perfectly legal but, in my opinion, totally immoral, considering the present state of public finances?
How is it that my colleagues in the Reform Party do not want to review this aspect of taxation? Why do they refuse to budge when we mention family trusts?
Even in the subcommittee set up by the finance committee to examine family trusts, they ridiculed the review of this question, something requested by the Minister of Finance. Why do they keep such a closed mind on discussing family trusts and such an open mind on cutting unemployment insurance, the Canada Assistance Plan, federal transfer payments for post-secondary education, the budget of the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation-a stupid measure to cut 30 per cent, one third of the budget, suggested last week-, and all the measures taken at the international level?
Why is the Reform Party so opposed to a serious review of this issue? If they are really serious, they should quit being so dogmatic every time we suggest something which might impact on companies, on very rich Canadians and on certain members of their own party.