They increased taxes, so why did they not do anything about family trusts?
The minister was saying this morning that, since the Finance critic of the Official Opposition had requested that family trusts be reviewed, he had referred the problem to the Committee on Finance. The minister knows full well that what I asked him to do is to abolish those trusts. It is true that I asked him to instruct the Auditor General, with the consent of the House, to review all the tax loopholes used by rich individuals and large companies, as this could be part of the attributions of the Auditor General, but I specifically asked that family trusts be abolished immediately.
The minister knows full well that the government, for political and politicking reasons, has already given the Committee mandate to find alternatives to the GST and that, consequently, the review of family trusts could not possibly be undertaken before next year.
If that is not helping the friends of the party, I wonder what it is. If this is not not telling the whole truth, what is it?