Mr. Speaker, first I want to congratulate my colleague from Saint-Hyacinthe—Bagot, as well as my colleague from Drummond, a riding that is very close to mine.
Today's debate is intoxicating in many respects. The microbrewery industry is quite important for Quebec and there is fair number of jobs at stake. Regarding Bill C-47 and the Excise Tax Act, the purpose of that act is to enable a government to levy taxes and to collect rather large sums of money. It is also used to manage and give direction to our economy.
In this case, we can see that it is the first element that guided Liberal members on the finance committee, including the chair. First, when we talk about modernizing the Excise Tax Act, which covers a multitude of products, we want to see to it that the economy and the industries related to these various products are as thriving as can be.
In this case, when 28¢ a litre of beer are charged to microbreweries, and we know what their situation is, while American microbrewery beers are taxed only 9¢ a litre, there are questions to be asked since we know that Labatt and Molson, the big Canadian breweries, basically control the distribution of imported beers.
When we examine the situation a bit more closely, we find that there is some collusion where, it must be said, the two main breweries control more than 90% of the beer market, and that includes of course imported beers that are taxed only 9¢ a litre. We realize at this point that there is a big problem in that regard. However, the government does not seem interested in helping microbreweries save their 2,000 jobs.
People must fight at every level. As for distribution, products must be of good quality. More and more, we find that microbreweries operating in Quebec and Canada have developed a quality product comparable to the best products in the world. Indeed, our microbreweries win more and more international prizes.
We find that the government is not there to support the microbrewery industry's development but rather to support mainly two big companies, Labatt and Molson. We cannot help thinking that there appears to be a conflict of interest here. It is crystal clear. It is not surprising that the ratings given by Quebecers and Canadians in public opinion polls to people in power for credibility and honesty are so low. When we see situations such as this, we cannot help but think like that.
Therefore big companies like Labatt and Molson are given preference. Globally, the objective of modernizing the excise tax act has not been reached. In fact, we are going in the opposite direction.
A number of issues could be mentioned, but one is of particular interest. What do Liberal members do when they have microbreweries in their ridings?
I have a microbrewery in my riding, in Lennoxville to be more precise. It is a small brewery called the Lion d'Or. It does not produce 300,000 hectolitres a year; it is really quite small, but it is extremely important and it is located in Lennoxville. Besides that microbrewery, I also have the Liberal member for Compton--Stanstead in my riding. So, he is one of my fellow citizens.