Mr. Speaker, in taking a look at Bill C-10, as I mentioned in my previous interventions, the problem was that the action the government took was exceptionally unfortunate action.
I speak on behalf of the people who came into my office, people who are in a very low income situation. All of a sudden out of the clear blue sky there were changes created to the way in which taxes were extracted by the U.S. before they came into Canada. Because the protocol was negotiated a difficulty was created for low income people, and I speak for them.
As I discussed in debate with the member for Etobicoke North, the difficulty I have is that the government would like to see itself as being saved harmless in this debate. In other words, like it was not the current finance minister, like it was not the current prime minister, like it was not even the former revenue minister who now sits as the fisheries minister, like it was not these people of the government in the 35th and 36th parliaments who actually brought in the legislation. It was this government that goofed.
Maybe it is nice to be able to say it is great they have been able to own up to it. They have said “Let us make some changes”. That is like hitting your head against a brick wall and stopping because it feels good. It just does not make any sense that Liberal backbenchers would stand to say they have made a wonderful change. What they are really saying and what the people of Canada have to know they are saying is that they agree with us that the finance minister, the prime minister and the revenue minister did not know what they were doing then and I submit do not know what they are doing now.