Madam Speaker, I thank my hon. colleague for his interesting question. I am in total agreement with him. Ever since our election, in 1993, we have asked the Minister of Finance to modernize and review substantially the tax system.
Our requests have been in vain. Like my colleague just said, they have always been met with half measures. We have been waiting since 1997 for changes to the Excise Tax Act, and we have now before us a bill in which something very important has been left out.
As I said earlier, this is a comprehensive bill. The excise tax applies to all products made in Quebec and Canada, like tobacco products, spirits, wine, and beer. These are products made in Canada on which the excise tax is levied.
Now, why should beer be excluded from the bill? We have been told that there will be further studies and other bills will be coming forward. We will have to wait another five years.
A moment ago, I was quoting a few figures. In Ontario, 13 microbreweries went under in the last five years. Over the same period, 11 went out of business in Quebec, two of them in Saint-Hyacinthe. We also had microbrewery closures in Saint-Eustache, Baie-Saint-Paul, Amos, Montreal and Cap-Chat. In British Columbia, seven had to close down. Where are the British Columbia members, when microbreweries need their support?
I am very surprised that my colleagues from the Canadian Alliance would support this bill and not defend entrepreneurship in their communities. It is our products that make us competitive. Again, nobody is doing anything to defend microbreweries. Five microbreweries had to shut down in Alberta, one in Manitoba and another one in Nova Scotia. Why are the members not defending microbreweries and the entrepreneurship of people in their communities? It is difficult to understand.
I would remind members that, in the finance minister's riding, the Brasal microbrewery had to shut down. Why? Because, in Lasalle—Émard, the finance minister's riding, that microbrewery had to compete with the powerful John Labatt company.
I fail to understand why the Minister of Finance himself was unable to defend these entrepreneurs in his own riding against a large brewery. I have nothing against large breweries. I think that they make enough profits to be able to support microbreweries and to be willing to do so. Microbreweries will never be a threat to large breweries such as John Labatt or Molson. But they should be given some room to breathe. That is what is important. We should be supporting them in their originality instead of crushing them.
We can imagine what happened when the Brasal microbrewery had to shut down. Can we not suppose that someone from John Labatt, a large brewery, went to the Minister of Finance and asked him—I prefer not to go too far on this subject—to exclude beer from the new excise tax bill?