Mr. Speaker, I would like to make a brief comment and then to ask the hon. member a question.
My comment stems from the fact that I have listened to a rambling dissertation. At times I had a problem finding the relevance to today's motion. Nevertheless the hon. member said something that interested me and which I think is very reflective of his party's position on many different topics.
He talked about Canadians wanting the government and country they used to have. I find this a major problem. They are always looking backward. Unfortunately the real responsibility of a government is to look forward. This Liberal government is dealing in business, in tax and in every issue. It is not looking backward but looking forward to the future, forward for a better situation for
Canadians. That includes very deliberate, well thought out, practical management of a tax system, a system that is very complex.
We in Canada are getting more and more of our jobs from international trade. When the Liberals took office one in five jobs in this country depended upon international trade. It is now much closer to one in three jobs in Canada depending on international trade. One of the things that has enabled us to do this, among many others because Canadians are very productive people, is the fact that we have a very sophisticated, advanced and by definition therefore complex tax treatment. I know that simple is the way the Reform Party likes things but some things are complex. Part of the complexity of our tax treatment is the fact that we have to deal internationally.
Many corporations today are international corporations. They do not just do business in one country, they are multinational. This applies also to the people in Canada. Our Canadians are gathered from around the world. We get income and enhancement to our economy from investment from outside of this country. People are also leaving at different stages of their lives. Many people come to this country, work for many years and then retire and leave it. They do not want to dispose of all their property and pay tax at that point in time. Some of them may want to keep property here and have the income flowing from that property. There are very serious complications to the broad range of the Canadian public on these issues.
International tax agreements modify Canadian tax law. That is at the basic concept of what happened here in the report of the finance committee. It was a 60-page document. It dealt with process, it dealt with policy, but at the heart of the document what we have is an understanding that Canada has over 60 bilateral trade agreements. That helps Canadians to do international transactions. In fact, the Canadian tax act is modified by law by the international tax agreements. For instance, with the United States we have 10 years after the migration to collect the tax.
My question for the hon. member is: Does the member of the Reform Party believe in honouring our international tax agreements for the benefit of Canadian citizens?