Mr. Speaker, there are a number of points which have been brought up by the hon. member.
First, he said we are saying there was no flight of capital, that through the committee process we were involved in a flight of capital. What took place was under a former government. The majority side on the committee said there was a flight of capital but we must stop it. We are the ones who are saying this is not right and we have recommended the changes to the law.
I find it passing strange that the hon. member, the chief financial critic for the Bloc, would say the experts who were called before our committee have no credibility whatsoever. In the same breath he said the Liberal majority attacked the message bearer, the auditor general.
Let me be very clear. It was not an attack. It was a mild rebuke. We criticized the way the auditor general released the information which led to speculation as to who the taxpayer was and according to the experts before us could put a chill on the entire ruling process.
We accepted the rulings. All the experts said that the ruling given by Revenue Canada had been proper in the circumstances. A fundamental aspect of our report was that we accepted his criticism of a system that allowed that money to escape and we recommended the loopholes be plugged.
I find it passing strange that his only attack on our report was that we attacked the auditor general. We said exactly what I have just said.
The member, as did all members, had the opportunity to bring other experts before our committee to deal with the precise complex and ambiguous tax provisions in question. Why does he attack them? If he did not like them he could have brought others. He had that opportunity. So for him to say we were attacking the messenger is fundamentally how he is attacking our report. He said he did not like the message and that these experts who came before us were not able to give us proper advice.
To say that, he is attacking the basis on which some of the biggest and finest auditing companies and legal firms in this country act. Their opinions have to be right. Their opinions are relied upon by shareholders, taxpayers, by others, by the people who buy shares in public companies. Their integrity and their wisdom are critical to this process.
For him to attack the messengers the way he said we were, which is a total mistake, a misinterpretation of the situation, is to me totally inconsistent. I wish he would stick to the issues and I wish he would join us in urging the government to plug these loopholes as quickly as possible.