Mr. Speaker, of course, I will not go as far as to commend the Minister of Finance for this initiative, which I think is phoney. I remember very well that, last week, the Secretary of State for Agriculture, no less, told me they had consulted with dairy producers before cutting their subsidies by $8,000 a year on average.
He seemed to suggest that dairy producers had agreed to let the Minister of Finance cut their subsidies by $8,000 a year. In fact, dairy producers were not consulted. I simply wanted to draw an analogy with the phoney consultation our good Minister of Finance is in the process of setting up.
He is travelling all over the place to sell his ideas, which we are already familiar with. Earlier, my distinguished colleague from Anjou-Rivière-des-Prairies talked about numerous Canadian companies that get incorporated in islands with very low tax rates, including the Bahamas. The Minister of Finance, who is listening to us, knows exactly what I mean, since he himself takes advantage of some corporate tax loopholes.
The consultations they are about to hold remind me of those that took place in the dairy industry. A few days before the referendum-and I would like my colleague to comment on this-Laurent Beaudoin was interviewed on Maisonneuve à l'écoute . In response to Mr. Maisonneuve's question, the Chairman and CEO of Bombardier revealed that they had paid no income tax in the last three years and that he could not even remember the last year in which they had paid taxes.
You must be uncomfortable. Your hands must be shaking when you vote in favour of legislation cutting funds for the little people, including UI recipients, when you let millionaires, even billionaires avoid taxes entirely. There is no need to consult anyone.