Mr. Speaker, allow me to congratulate the hon. member for La Prairie on his comments and on his election. This is the first time I have the opportunity to do so since he became a member of this House.
His comments on program evaluation are interesting. I urge him to pursue these issues with the chairpersons of the various committees, because these people can undertake program evaluations and they do so in a larger context than is possible for the Auditor General, and even with the departments themselves, as I and other members opposite have seen in the past; indeed, there are numerous opportunities to do so.
In any case, I have a question for the hon. member and I would like to know the position of the Bloc Quebecois on a statement made yesterday by the Canadian Life and Health Insurance Association, which suggests that the federal government is considering taxing group insurance benefits, as well as health and dental insurance benefits. Such a measure would have an impact on some 20 million Canadians and would directly affect nine million workers across the country.
Using its own data, the Association indicated that a person with no dependent and an annual salary of around $25,000 would have to pay $275 more per year in taxes. A family earning about $40,000 a year would face a tax increase of $425. Similarly, a family with two salaries totalling $80,000 a year would have to pay $700 more in taxes if, in its next budget, the federal government decides to introduce this measure.
I want to put this in the appropriate context, so that the hon. member for La Prairie can give me the Bloc Quebecois position on this issue. This measure would be introduced while we anticipate a very comprehensive debate on health care in Canada and, I suppose, on the role of the federal and provincial governments, the private sector, the taxpayers, and so on and so forth.
Does the member not find it alarming that this measure could have such serious consequences on the budget of every individual and family? Does he not find it even more alarming that the government is proposing a comprehensive debate on health care but would introduce such a measure before even holding that debate?