Mr. Speaker, we all like to hear that we should immediately get into action and take decisions. Most Canadians think, and we have repeated it here, that we have had enough study.
Nevertheless, when we are dealing with something like the tax system we cannot do it without having profound knowledge of the implications for everybody. That is why I wanted to bring up the idea of a royal commission like we had in the past. Maybe we can go back to the Carter commission of 1967. There was a review some four or five years ago that showed that scholars at Harvard recognized the Carter commission as a revolutionary document. Scandinavian countries used part of the commission's report to make reforms. The only country that never used any of the commission's recommendations was our country.
To get back to what the member asked, I believe we have to understand the implications of our tax system. We can go back to the Carter commission but we cannot immediately jump in an cut taxes. Like I pointed out, the whole income tax system is flawed and detrimental to the middle class. We do not have to be economists to realize this. That is what we have to look at and it requires a lot.
The member mentioned that we have a lot of people in Canada who are very knowledgeable. I could name a few I have met through the years who came to the commission. Quite often they tell us afterwards that their recommendations over the years have been ignored. I believe it is not only the finance department that has had a monopoly on brains through the years. We have had some very qualified people. I have come to know individuals like Pierre Fortin from Montreal. He is one of our foremost economists and has written extensively. I have discussed this with him on many occasions without going into any details. I do not consider myself an expert, far from it.
The overall tax system has to be reformed. That is what we have to realize. Everybody would like to have lower taxes. Everybody would like to see changes whereby our taxes would go down and they would have more disposable income. That would give us a shot in the arm. Before we can start cutting or doing this we have to know what the flaws are in our system. That will not be easy. There are a lot of people in this country who are very satisfied with the tax system. The richest 1% would rather it not be touched.
Without going into more detail, before we can start one thing or another with the tax system, we have to reform it.