Mr. Speaker, basically, I have four points to make. I think that with time and with the wearing effect of politics, the hon. member for Willowdale, who is chairman of the finance committee, became a misinformation expert.
He said that they took the issue seriously and that the auditor general is one of the most respected institutions, but he does not believe his own words. I say that because when the auditor general appeared before the committee, the member for Willowdale, with the complicity of senior civil servants who took part in the 1991 advanced ruling allowing the transfer of $2 billion outside of Canada tax free, tried for an hour and a half to give him hell, catch him off guard and undermine his credibility.
That continued when the liberal majority report produced under the direction of the chairman of the finance committee was made public. What do we find in that report? Two things. A major part of it continued the attack on the reputation of the auditor general. He was accused of violating confidentiality rules when the leak, mentioned in the Globe and Mail a few days after the auditor general made the scandal public, was traced back to Revenue Canada. Maybe there are civil servants who have had enough of the establishment and the complicity between the decision-makers responsible for those advanced rulings and the wealthy Canadian families. I think that is the truth of the matter. The report denigrated the auditor general.
One other example of misinformation is the statement by the chairman of the finance committee, the hon. member for Willowdale, that the Liberal proposals go farther than those of the Bloc. Sure they go farther in the sense that they open wide the doors to massive capital transfers for Canadian millionaires and billionaires. They certainly do go farther.
We are saying that this loophole must be closed. We must put an end to twisted interpretations, such as the ones we got from the senior officials who made this shameful decision in 1991 without doing a technical analysis of the Income Tax Act and without taking the time to write the minutes of the numerous meetings they had for one week until December 23, 1991.
As for the experts, here is another thing that goes against the credibility of the chairman of the finance committee. He is the one who invited these experts. Six of the experts that were at that table were invited by him.
These experts have no credibility whatsoever, as far as I am concerned. Do you know why? Because they come from the very tax consulting firms which help rich Canadian families transfer their money out of the country. On the word of these six experts chosen by the chairman, chosen by the establishment of the Liberal Party of Canada, the Liberal majority report says there is no problem, there are no capital transfers.
Finally, when the member for Willowdale and chairman of the finance committee says that the financial community is worried, I can understand why because, for the first time in a very long time, the auditor general and the official opposition have uncovered a scandal, a conspiracy that has been going on for decades between the deputy ministers, the assistant deputy ministers and the senior officials responsible for advance rulings and the rich Canadian families who want to take money out of the country. That was the concern of the financial community.
I will never forget a certain Mr. Goodman, a tax expert invited by the Liberal Party of Canada, by the chairman of the finance committee, who said: "The auditor general should have never informed Canadians of these kinds of things. They are far too complex".
What that expert was saying really is that, when dealing with complex issues, it is better that the public be kept in the dark. When these kinds of scandals occur, they have to be hidden. Even the auditor general, who is accountable to Parliament, to the people, and who is the watchdog of our public finances, should have kept his mouth shut because it was outside his mandate. That is the reality of the situation.
It bothers me when I hear remarks like the ones made by the chairman of the finance committee, which I think are misleading and are the reason why this man is losing even more credibility not only with his own committee members, but also with Canadians. The picture painted by the chairman of the finance committee is totally contrary to the facts.