Madam Speaker, first I wish to inform you that I will share my time with my colleague from Chambly, so I have ten minutes for my speech.
My first three words in the present debate are: shame, shame and shame.
I listened to the hon. member for Renfrew-Nipissing-Pembroke and I totally disagree with the chronology that he just described. I have the course of events written here, showing how cynical the government's methods were.
First of all, on December 23, Revenue Canada issued its ruling, that is to say, officials held discussions leading to a decision. In his report, the auditor general mentioned that at least four meetings were held that day. This was already preferential treatment for the kind of companies, or rich families we are discussing today.
This was also done behind closed doors. Two days before Christmas, when everybody was celebrating, officials were called together four or five times to try and to see what could be done for friends. We will prove later that they were friends of the Liberal Party.
On December 24, they issued their ruling. When asked for a ruling or when a ruling is appealed, revenue officials rarely issue a ruling within 24 hours. That happened in the case discussed today.
In 1993, the auditor general ordered Revenue Canada to publish its rulings, because he realized that it did not publish its rulings regarding family trusts. I also totally disagree with the hon. member who spoke just before me, the hon. member for Renfrew-Nipissing-Pembroke, because family trusts have been in the Bloc Quebecois' platform since the very beginning, since its founding-and I was there-and also during the election campaign.
We realized there was a major problem. The middle class and the poor were hit by all kinds of taxes and measures, while other Canadian families were benefitting from the government's generosity. We pointed this out from the very beginning and we started doing something about it, since we were elected in October. The hon. member can look at the record: the Bloc Quebecois' first questions in the early days of this Parliament related to the issue of family trusts, which was part of our platform.
Finally, on March 21, five years after the beginning of this saga, Revenue Canada made its ruling public. On May 7, the auditor general released his report, in which he alludes to a precedent that could cost Canadians hundreds of millions of dollars.
Following the release of the auditor general's report, the Bloc continued to ask questions. In a very unfair move, the government, rather than asking the public accounts committee, chaired by a Bloc Quebecois member, to review the issue, as should have been the case-although it would have been risky for the government-asked instead the finance committee to shed light on these events.
There is no surprise. The revenue minister often hides behind the report of the finance committee, because it was prepared by the Liberal majority of course, but she never talks about the minority report of that same committee. The minister claims the exercise was conducted according to normal practices.
Not so. The public accounts committee is the one that should have been instructed to examine the issue. And what did the finance committee do as soon as it convened? It asked experts to come and testify. My colleagues told you about this. I have the names of these experts.
The committee invited officials from Ernst and Young, Stikeman Elliott and Coopers and Lybrand. These are all tax consultants who give advice to rich Canadian families so they can avoid paying taxes to Revenue Canada. This is tantamount to putting the wolf in charge of the sheepfold. And this is what happened.
Once the report appeared, everybody said: "This has been done democratically, the finance committee has reviewed the issue, there is no problem, experts were called on to give evidence." Nobody tells us that foxes were called to tell us how to mind the geese. As a result, we might never know where those two billion dollars went and what families were concerned. That too was disclosed, the names of the families. Again, those are presumptions. What is sure is that it happened and maybe it keeps happening right now. Yes they can talk about ice and holes in the ice that can be plugged.
In our opinion, that keeps happening and were it not for our colleagues' intervention, our colleagues for Saint-Hyacinthe, for La Prairie and for Beauport-Montmorency-Orléans, we would still be allowing fortunes to move out one way or the other. We would ignore it. That is not exactly how we want things to be done.
Earlier, my colleague for Portneuf talked about the importance-I would rather call it the appearance-of tax equity. Is there appearance of tax equity?