moved:
That the third report of the Standing Committee on Public Accounts presented on Monday, October 28, 1996, be concurred in.
Mr. Speaker, I would first like to inform you that I will be sharing my time with a colleague and that my motion is supported by the hon. member for Laurentides.
I am pleased to speak today to a theme that will play a major part in the next election campaign, that is, the integrity of this government.
Speaking of which, the report we are discussing under this motion deals with the famous family trust scandal, as you may recall.
What exactly was done in this matter? As chairman of the Standing Committee on Public Accounts, I must say that, unfortunately, our committee was not able to get to the bottom of what really happened.
Let us put the facts in their context. On December 23, 1991, a date that sets off an alarm as to how a taxpayer can get an advanced decision on December 23, 1991. It quickly raises a certain question. So, two taxpayers were able, with Revenue Canada's permission and blessing, after asking the advice of the finance department, to transfer $2 billion in family trusts to the United States.
I said that this government would have to account for its morality or its integrity. We in the Standing Committee on Public Accounts wanted to shed some light on that issue. Since the very beginning, the Bloc members on this committee have asked that an independent inquiry be conducted so that Canadian taxpayers can find out what really happened on December 23, 1991.
Even though, as representative of the official opposition, I chair the committee, it has to be explained to people watching our proceedings that the official opposition does not have a majority on the committee. The Liberal majority on the committee literally gagged the Bloc members.
Mr. Speaker, could you ask the chihuahua from Vaudreuil to go yap outside the House?
The tabling of this new report by the Liberal majority on the public accounts committee about the family trust scandal is in keeping with the government's cover-up of a financial and tax scandal unprecedented in Canada.
The Standing Committee on Public Accounts had to shed light on the nebulous events surrounding the advanced ruling delivered on December 23, 1991, leaving the finance committee to deal with the technical aspect, that is to say, the tax changes needed.
Soon after that scandal was uncovered by the Bloc Quebecois, which followed up on the report of the Auditor General, which party raised that issue in the House of Commons? It was the Bloc Quebecois. This is a very good illustration of what we are going to tell Quebecers during the next election campaign: "It was a good thing the Bloc Quebecois was there to uncover this scandal because if, instead of 54 members of the Bloc Quebecois, we had had 74 Liberal members out of 75, as we did in the 1980s during the Trudeau era, this issue would never have been raised".
This is yet another good reason for Quebecers to elect a strong contingent of Bloc members to defend Quebec's interests and to point out inequalities and injustices in the Canadian federal system.
The day after this scandal came to light, several Liberal members of the committee were outraged by the actions of Revenue Canada and the Department of Finance. These recalcitrant Liberals soon went back to the party line of doing everything possible to protect the interests of those in very, very high places.
I ask those listening from the comfort of their homes to try to imagine, the day before they file their tax returns next May 1, that they have a way of hiding $2 billion. Are these ordinary taxpayers? Are these single mothers who are able to hide $2 billion tax free? No, these are not ordinary people.