Exactly.
When I review, reflect and take a look at this piece of legislation that we are going to be talking about here today-I presume there will not be too much difficulty in passing it-I at the same time have to ask myself this. What can we as members of Parliament do to not just give amended tax laws to small business? What can we as members of Parliament do to address their number one problem, access to capital?
I am hoping that once again as we head toward a budget date and toward committees that all members can be seized with this notion of accessing capital to small business.
Our party believes-it was part of our red book-that the greatest hope we have in this country for putting people back to work rests with the small businessmen and women who are the ones who take the chances. They are the ones who put their homes, savings and RRSPs on the line.
I just wish there was a way that the financial institutions could realize that they are part of the responsibility of joining with us in facing the crisis of unemployment that is before us.
I do not really have a lot more to add on this bill but I want to go back to the amendment which deals with senior citizens, the instalment payments of income tax.
This is a very important amendment for our senior citizens. I am repeating this because, as many members have heard, the
parliamentary channel is watched by a lot of seniors in our country. I think this is a welcomed amendment.
Many of our senior citizens were asked to make quarterly instalments on very low incomes because of a glitch in the way the legislation was written. With this amendment we will be able to correct that instalment payment process for about 300,000 senior citizens.
I want to state again that this is a constructive piece of legislation. It is geared primarily toward assistance for small business using the tax act. Philosophically of course I would prefer a different approach to helping small business if we could do it in a comprehensive way.
I do not like using the tax act to run the economy. I prefer that we go back and have a total comprehensive review of our tax act. That of course is one of the reasons why I have been advocating for many years the idea of a single tax, a system where one basically takes the Income Tax Act, all of the 14,000 pages of exceptions to exceptions which by now most of us have had a chance to review because we have been here for almost a month. Special preferences are buried in that act. Most multinationals have the ability to benefit from the approach that exists in our current tax act. I am optimistic that many of those special preferences will be eliminated next Tuesday when the budget is presented. I am hopeful.
Is it not interesting that we are all being lobbied right now by different people for their particular measure to be attended to in the budget. I am sure many members have received the briefing from the Business Council on National Issues. In that briefing they talk about the fact that they want no new grants to business, no grants to business.
I thought this was incredible. They think that grants are moneys received directly from line departments, whether it be industry, agriculture or whatever. The real grants that big business receives in this country are buried in this tax act. I just wish when the Business Council on National Issues says no new grants or cut back on grants that it would include all the ones that are buried in the tax act.
I am happy today to at least acknowledge the fact that 90 per cent of the measures are for small business and I hope this bill goes through the House quickly.