Mr. Speaker, I wish to begin by congratulating the hon. member for Beauport—Montmorency—Côte-de-Beaupré—Île-d'Orléans on Bill C-502. I would, however, respectfully submit that this bill does not provide all that is needed.
I know the member opposite when he proposed this bill was concerned about the working people. I would offer the suggestion that if he has the interests of the workers at heart, he should be looking for more broadly based policies that would accomplish the same objectives.
One of these that I am pleased to point out is in the finance committee report that was tabled yesterday or the day before. It talks about the need for tax provisions such as employee stock option plans that enhance productivity by encouraging employees to share in the risks and profits of firms.
If we moved in that direction we would provide workers, employees, with a greater stake in the work they do. They would have a greater sense of participation and job satisfaction. At the same time the productivity of firms would be increased. This has been shown by studies in the United States and Canada. Productivity would be increased 20% to 32%. We would have an environment where a source of retirement income would be made available to employees because they had built up an equity in the firm.
While I respect what the member has proposed in a sense, I think what we need is a broader strategy, more broadly based answers and solutions to these sorts of problems. Deductions for tools for mechanics is not really ambitious enough. While I do respect the member for proposing it, we need much more broadly based solutions to deal with the questions of productivity, incentives, employee participation and employee job satisfaction.