Mr. Speaker, I was under the impression that the Reform Party was going to put forward another speaker. However, I appreciate having the opportunity to speak in support of this bill.
First, any attempt which this House makes to simplify the tax acts of Canada is something which I support and celebrate.
Bill C-10 would organize tax treaties for efficiency and fairness where there is a specific benefit to seniors in Canada. However imperfect, I believe it should be supported by all parties.
I would like to pick up from where the hon. member for Edmonton—Strathcona left off in his remarks. He talked about the fact that members on the government side of the House should debate and challenge the tax system of this country. The fact of the matter is we do. This party is not made up of lemmings. The government is not asking members to suppress creativity on how to improve or reform the tax acts. Quite frankly, I think the hon. member for Edmonton—Strathcona knows that.
This is purely coincidental today. There is a book which a group of us put together called “The Single Tax System” back in 1990. When I look at the acknowledgements of the people who contributed I notice the name “Rahim Jaffer, Ottawa”. I acknowledged the hon. member for Edmonton—Strathcona as one of the people who helped me put this effort at tax reform together.
The hon. member for Edmonton—Strathcona is here as a newly elected member of Parliament. I celebrate his being here. He is a creative, intelligent and thoughtful individual. However, I think that the challenge for the opposition is not just to criticize the flaws which exist in legislation, it is also the responsibility of the opposition to put forward constructive alternatives.
We listened attentively to the member's remarks during the last 10 minutes and all he did was criticize this piece of legislation. I have never seen a piece of legislation which was flawless, but not once did the member talk about a constructive alternative. I am beginning to wonder if the hon. member for Edmonton—Strathcona has gone soft on the notion of comprehensive tax reform. He is in the index of this book as being one of the strong supporters of a single tax system and comprehensive tax reform, but not once during his remarks did he talk about what he would put forward as his alternative or his party's alternative.
The day that the member was elected I was happy and hopeful that when he came to this Parliament he would be a champion of comprehensive tax reform. I thought that the member and the hon. member for Calgary Southeast, the former head of the Canadian Tax Foundation, were passionate supporters of the single tax system before they were elected. We have been here for months and we have heard barely a peep out of those members. All they do is criticize. They do not talk about comprehensive tax reform any more. They do not talk about the single tax system.
I listened attentively to the member's notice that there may be a couple of flaws in Bill C-10. I repeat myself. There could be areas requiring improvement in any piece of legislation, but I think we need to hear from the opposition parties on an issue like this one where they stand on comprehensive tax reform. Are they going to whisper about it from time to time, or are they going to get passionate in the House about real reform?
The time is right. We hear right now that not a day goes by in the United States that Democrat and Republican senators and congressmen are not looking at the notion of comprehensive tax reform. If the United States government has a simplified tax act because it flushed out and cleaned up many of the credits buried in the tax act, we know that we must follow.
We should not avoid taking advantage of this opportunity. We should get right into the debate, put our best creative minds together and see if we can create some momentum and some political will.
In the last 10 years I have watched our government and the previous government cut, cut, cut, offload all direct grants; but the fact of the matter is that the biggest or the largest grants to individuals or corporations are buried in the Tax Act of Canada. There is no accountability or very little accountability in these tax preferences.
I stand here today appealing to the Reform Party to stand up for comprehensive tax reform, the same way they did before they were elected. I also say to the Reform Party that it is fair ball to critique a flaw or two in a piece of legislation, but I appeal to my friend from Edmonton—Strathcona to put forward a constructive alternative.