Yes, there is the whole case of operation loophole, the court case that was launched in Manitoba by someone in the city of Winnipeg going after the Bronfman family and the wealthy people for the taxes they evade by moving their wealth offshore. That is not fair. When a person does that the ordinary person has to pick up the can and put more money into the taxation system.
What we have to do is have a more progressive taxation system. Many years ago we had seven or eight tax brackets in Canada. The Mulroney government reduced that to three. In the last budget we had a fourth tax bracket added, which is a very minor step in the right direction. Also, the tax rate for middle income people in the country is gradually going down from 26% to 23% so we will have a taxation system that is a bit more graduated, except that the highest tax bracket still remains at 29%, I think. In the United States the highest tax bracket goes up to 45% or 50% for extremely wealthy people.
Even in the United States there is a more progressive taxation system than we have in this country, and the United States is the world's bastion of so-called capitalism, where they talk about making life as easy as possible for investors and people with a lot of money and a lot of wealth. Even in the United States there is a more progressive taxation system on the individual income tax side. We have to get back to that in Canada.
I see the Alliance across the way. The people of Canada should be aware that the Alliance Party is pushing a single flat tax system in the country. It is a single rate, a flat tax. That is the most regressive tax of all that we could have. Even the Republicans in the United States have dropped the idea of a flat tax. George Bush and the Republicans think it is too regressive for the Republicans in the United States.