Mr. Speaker, I rise today to draw the attention of the house to Project Loophole. Choices, a Winnipeg based coalition for social justice, is challenging in the Federal Court of Canada in Toronto the $2.2 billion family trust tax manoeuvre identified and criticized by the Auditor General of Canada. The case is to be heard later this month.
Choices is to be commended for pursuing this issue. Tax avoidance is one of the far too hidden dimensions of why the government finds itself without the revenues it needs. Yet this same government not only does not cite tax avoidance as a factor in its fiscal situation that needs to be dealt with, instead it actively encourages tax avoidance by sending departmental officials to act as resource persons at privately sponsored tax avoidance workshops on tax shelters, offshore havens, et cetera.
It is no surprise really. When we see the kinds of prices the Liberals are able to charge for their fund-raising dinners, we know that their real friends are folks with lots of taxes to be avoided.
The ordinary Canadian will be getting his or her CPP reduced and their public services—