Mr. Speaker, I find the remarks of the member for Durham quite remarkable.
Who was in power in 1986 when this tax treaty was promulgated? He talks about the terrible problems these people are suffering. I talked about the very same problems in the majority of my speech. I do not know if he was listening or not.
The low income seniors who have been whacked by this 25.5% flat tax were whacked by this government which agreed to the tax treaty. Shame on it. Now it is trying to blame us for the mistake it made. We believed the Deputy Prime Minister and the finance minister just like the member did when he voted for the tax treaty, just like the seniors did when they said nobody would end up paying more taxes. What happened? They all ended up paying more taxes.
I have one question for the member. Who was in power in 1986? Did he vote for the treaty?
We do not want to drag out this debate. We would like to end it right here, right now if the government would agree to an amendment which would make it clear that this would not increase anybody's tax burden over what was paid in 1995.
If this member and the government are willing to entertain an amendment that does not treat social security payments to Canadians differently than to Americans in terms of the inclusion rate we will support it right now. We will fast track it right through this place.
Why does the member not agree to do that? He says that this will increase taxes for everybody. Under this treaty the inclusion rate will be 85% for the constituent he is talking about whereas in the United States a retiree would have to earn $60,000 to get an 85% inclusion rate on the social security benefits.
Every Canadian recipient of these payments will get an inclusion rate of 85%. It does not matter how low their income is. That is the unfairness we are trying to address. That is why we want to make an amendment. Will the member support us in getting such an amendment passed today?