Mr. Speaker, I enjoyed listening to the hon. member. However, I am not too certain that the solution is as simple as he purports.
The corporate tax rate in Canada is 38 per cent. When provincial corporate taxes are added the average is 43.4 per cent. In the United States the tax rate is 35 per cent nationally. When state taxes are added the average is 40.3 per cent. In Japan the corporate tax rate has never been below 50 per cent. In fact, the corporate tax rate today in Japan is 52.5 per cent. The corporate tax rates in France and Germany, which are major trading partners of the largest nations in the world, in Germany range from 56 to 44 per cent, with France at 33 per cent.
The hon. member is suggesting a substantial decrease in corporate taxes, with a single rate of tax. In fact he has expanded that to personal income taxes. He suggests that there should be a simple direct rate which would be the same for everybody regardless of income. I would ask him what deductions, if any, he would allow for corporations if that were the case.