Madam Speaker, while the member for Kings—Hants was speaking, I was thinking that there are probably 500 or 600 comedians out of work in this country and he is trying to break into the business. That was hard to take.
Just for the record, the Tory legacy left behind by Mulroney will always be remembered for the dreaded GST that was rammed down the throats of not only his backbenchers but all Canadians. He also tried unsuccessfully to ram the Charlottetown accord down the throats of Canadian people. It is also important to note that a $45 billion deficit was left to this Liberal government, as well as a $500 billion debt. That is the record no matter what the member says. Apparently that allowed the Liberals to eliminate the deficit. That is interesting because what allowed them to eliminate the deficit was extracting an extra $40 billion in taxes from the Canadian people since 1993. Let us be clear about that.
We are here to talk about Bill C-67. My party supports Bill C-67. We think it is a good bill. It will certainly add to the financial landscape of the country. The only thing I can ask the Liberal government is what took so long. It took six years for the finance minister and the government to make some positive steps in the financial services industry. That is a long time for a government that says it is on top of things.
We support the quick passage of the bill and the implementation of the changes to the regulations. We also anticipate sooner than later the changes to the regulations governing credit unions which will allow them to do some things such as pooling their resources to take advantage of opportunities and perhaps becoming more bank-like in some respects.
We would also encourage the government to do a very thorough review of the tax regime, taxation as it applies to our players in the financial services sector including bankers.
We want to close this debate and get the bill passed. I say once again that we support the bill. It is a good bill for Canada, particularly business in Canada, and the Reform Party will be supporting it.