Madam Speaker, I will not take as much time as my hon. colleague from the Reform Party. I would like to return to the matter raised by the hon. member for Saint-Hyacinthe—Bagot.
I believe the motion he has moved is important. It is significant that all opposition parties have joined together in recent months to raise the problematical issue, or potentially problematical issue, relating to the Minister of Finance and have demanded clarifications. I believe this is important.
The Minister of Finance has very great responsibilities. The entire credibility of the Canadian tax system is at stake. He must provide answers to all questions raised by the opposition parties. The hon. member for Saint-Hyacinthe—Bagot has done an excellent job on this, and we in this corner of the House wish to congratulate him on it.
We are, therefore, going to support this motion, and hope our friends opposite will do likewise. Why? In order to avoid any problematical issues around reputations and credibility. If the Liberals understand their Minister of Finance, and are so fond of him, so much the better. If they are so fond of him, let them go along with the parties in opposition in voting in favour of this motion, in order to settle the question of potential conflict of interest for once and for all, at least in connection with Bill C-28 and the way in which it was introduced, as far as Canada Steamship Lines and foreign holdings are concerned.
If the Liberals understand their Minister of Finance, and are so fond of him, they will support this motion and we will be able to defer any discussions on this issue to a later date.
It is up to the Liberals, today or whenever we vote, to decide whether they support their Minister of Finance or whether they are prepared to delay part of Bill C-28 to ensure that their Minister of Finance will never be in a conflict of interest—real or potential.
It is the responsibility of the opposition to raise this issue, but it is the responsibility of the House as a whole to support the motion of the member for Saint-Hyacinthe—Bagot.
We must remember that Bill C-28 is a great fat volume that Canadians will find muddling. It requires research, and the role of the opposition parties is to ensure that everything is proper and to raise any problems before the House so Canadians will understand what is really happening with their government.
I hope those opposite will join with the members of the opposition in unanimously supporting the motion of the member for Saint-Hyacinthe—Bagot. I am sure that, basically, all members in this House want the Minister of Finance to be exonerated of all blame. That is what we want as well, because the country's fiscal credibility is at stake.
So they should hold up this part of Bill C-28, and all the members should join together so the Minister of Finance, the government and all Liberals can rest easy with this matter. We will eventually get back to the issue of international shipping companies in this country.