Mr. Speaker, first of all I would like to address what my colleague, the Parliamentary Secretary to the Prime Minister, just said. I would also like to congratulate my colleague, the member for Saint-Hyacinthe--Bagot, for his good work.
I have no doubt that the microbreweries in Quebec and elsewhere support the present position of the Bloc Quebecois. The proof is that, last week during question period, my colleague was accompanied here by many microbrewery representatives from Quebec. What we are trying to explain to people is that there is no difference between the microbreweries of Quebec, those of British Columbia and those of Ontario. They are all in agreement with the position adopted by the Bloc Quebecois. It is easy enough to understand.
I think that large breweries have found a Machiavellian scheme to put an end to all microbrewery activities not only in Quebec, but also in Ontario, in British Columbia and everywhere else. Here is how this will happen.
We are not against the idea of bringing the Excise Tax Act up to date. We think it is important. This legislation has an impact on various industries. At first, the breweries had said, “If there is a reform of the excise tax and we can pay less, we want to be part of that”. However, the large breweries, John Labatt and Molson among others, realized that each time the microbreweries lost 1% of the market, they had a return of $17 million in dividends. That is probably much more profitable than a reduction of the excise tax.
So the large breweries cooked up a scheme that can only be described as diabolical. It is very simple. At this time, microbreweries and large breweries both pay 28 ¢ a litre in excise tax. They know that in Europe and in the United States, the amount is much less. That means the American and European microbreweries can offer their products on the Quebec and Canadian markets at a much lower price than our own microbreweries. Naturally that puts pressure on our own microbreweries. So the American microbreweries are gradually taking over the market. This has caused the shutdown or the bankruptcy of 38 microbreweries out of 86 in Canada.
On that subject, I must say that, unlike the Liberal Party, the Bloc Quebecois does not defend large businesses only. We believe that there must be equity within the Canadian, Quebec and North American economy. When inequity becomes a means for large businesses to increase their profits, I am tempted to use the expression used my colleague from Saint-Hyacinthe—Bagot, who calls this economic predation. That is just what it is.
The large breweries said “We have always wanted to support that because we wanted to benefit from a reduction in the excise tax. Now we realize that it could be more profitable to exclude the whole brewery and microbrewery sector from the process. By having the whole sector excluded from the process and asking the government to do that, we realize that our profits will increase by $17 million for every 1% of the market lost by microbreweries”.
Microbreweries had up to 5.5% of the market at one point. It has now gone down to 4%. This means that Canadian breweries have probably seen their annual dividends increase by $28 million so far.
The rationale was very simple. These large breweries thought that, if they asked the government to exclude them, microbreweries would also be excluded, which means that they would also have to continue to pay 28 ¢ per litre in excise tax. Knowing that microbreweries are unable to pay such a tax in the long term because of the strong competition on the Quebec and Canadian market, large breweries will end up with the whole market share that microbreweries had, because they will all have shut down. It is absolutely shameful, and we have the figures to support what we are saying.
At present, for a case of 24 sold in a store, microbreweries pay $4.09 in excise tax, and it goes up to $6.10 if it is sold in a bar.
In the U.S., the tax on a case of 24 is $1.12. It is readily understood that we are not able to withstand the unfair competition by the American microbreweries. This is, of course, a government decision in favour of the large breweries.
It is disconcerting to see how this has happened. Very disconcerting. Perhaps we are sorry to have to come back to it, but this must be said: when the major breweries saw it coming, they said “We will create a taxation committee”. The husband of the hon. member for London West just happens to be a member of that committee. Not only does the hon. member for London West share her life with the chair of the major breweries' committee on taxation, but she also shares his philosophy about the big breweries. It is totally deplorable in a democracy for a member of parliament to totally adopt the position of her spouse because he works for the large breweries.
At the very least, people can see that this is a problem of conflict of interest. It gives a very bad impression. It is not unlike other situations. Even the Prime Minister is concerned that MPs and politicians in general rank lowest in public popularity and confidence. This is not unfounded. People have examples such as these in front of them.
As for the 2,000 remaining microbrewery employees, they are wondering “Why do people want to see us disappear?” They read the same reports the rest of us do. They conclude “There seems to be some degree of collusion here”. I would be curious to know how much of the Liberal Party's funding comes from Labatt and Molson as compared to what comes from the microbreweries. And what about conflict of interest, not just in connection with the member for London West, but the candidates for the leadership? I would be curious as to how much Labatt and Molson have contributed to that. Whom can they count on?
This may be evident from a reading of the letter from Mr. Morrison, CEO of John Labatt. There are numerous passages in that letter that refer to how urgent it is to be able to benefit from the new excise tax structure. He says, however, that no decision has been made and it would be preferable to wait. They want to be left out.
It is peppered with contradictions. It is urgent, it is important, but we must not do anything right away. This letter also refers to an agreement that exists with the government. “We met with your government. We met with the Minister of Finance. We met with his officials”. What is the nature of this agreement? They are asking to be excluded and to simply let the microbreweries go belly up. We will lose another 2,000 jobs in addition to the 1,500 jobs that have already been lost. The large breweries will take over this market and their shareholders will be very happy.
This is the philosophy of this Liberal government. Give it all to the biggest fish. For those who get in the way, do what we can to get them out of there. This is what is happening right now with microbreweries. This is but one sector. This does not include the many other sectors. The real issue is often election coffers, Liberal party coffers. This is what often happens.
We find this deplorable. This is not the position of the Bloc Quebecois. The Bloc Quebecois believes that it is important to distribute to some extent the wealth of the economy. This does not violate the rules of the WTO. Even the United States, the mecca of capitalism, believes that it is important to provide some respite for microbreweries, because they realize that they are not able to compete against the large breweries.
It is deplorable that in this House, we are witnessing the Liberal party engage in conflicts of interest and defending big business and big money, at the expense of the little guy. This gets us nowhere. In fact, this also demonstrates that it is small and medium-size businesses that create jobs and that are the most productive for society. It is not by starving them and allowing others to rake in even greater profits through economies of scale that we can create a fair and just society.
This is why the Bloc Quebecois introduced amendments and why we are opposed to this bill. Beer must now be included with the other sectors in the excise tax reforms. Both breweries and microbreweries must be included.