Mr. Speaker, the hon. member is to be commended for his tremendous understanding of senior citizens. Like me, the hon. member represents a rural riding. When we are in a rural area, we realize that the problems may not be as obvious to the government as the problems of our big cities. I have tried to listen carefully to what the hon. member had to say.
In our area, there are seniors who worked all their lives to save a few dollars, and it certainly was not easy. These people worked in factories. They worked in the fisheries. They worked on farms, and I am referring to my own constituency. And, the government is going to take some of those hard-earned savings away from them. When we consider the multinationals which pay practically no taxes and family trusts which are not taxed at all, I say there is some incredible injustice in this country, and especially in rural communities.
I have a brief question for the hon. member. He said, and perhaps he would like to repeat what he said or rephrase it: Is there not another way to let senior citizens take advantage of the few years they have left, people who worked from the age of 7 until 65, at one, two or three jobs, and who worked for as long as 18 hours a day?
I speak on behalf of these people in rural areas and also on behalf of people in the cities, because they worked very hard as well. Is there no other way to get more taxes from the big corporations? He commented on that, and I wish he would expand a little on family trusts and duplication.
There is also the forestry sector. A lot is being done, both provincially and federally. One example is the so-called sociétés de la Vallée, which have a staff of engineers and technicians. What often happens is that two technicians from different associations turn up at the same place, so would it not be a good idea to have only one technician visit the landowner and be able
to offer the whole range of services instead of having two technicians going separately, each with his own proposals? I would like to ask the hon. member whether he could expand a little on this.