Mr. Speaker, I thank my colleagues for their tireless support, especially on an issue which is not one of the easiest ones we have had to deal with since our arrival in the House of Commons.
It is always troubling that Liberal members confuse human feeling and sexism with cases of corruption and utter dishonesty. We have demonstrated this over the past few days. One cannot be both judge and jury in a position as important as that of committee chair.
Had the member for London West been a man, this would have changed nothing. We would still have tried to get to the bottom of the process whereby a bill such as Bill C-47 gets passed.
The amendment we put forward earlier allows us to voice our criticism of the unfairness and irregular proceedings in the Standing Committee on Finance and in the Department of Finance since this review of the Excise Act first began.
We are moving that adoption of this bill at third reading be postponed for six months so that we can get to the bottom of this process, which is unworthy of an institution such as the House of Commons, unworthy of us as MPs and, a fortiori, of anyone holding the position of committee chair.
This is not how Bill C-47 now before us should have looked. Why? Because Bill C-47 amends the Excise Act, a comprehensive measure. We have been studying the Excise Act since 1997. Since becoming a member of the Standing Committee on Finance in 1994 I have followed all the committee's deliberations, despite what a Liberal member may have said earlier. We have been looking at this review since 1997. We cannot have a general excise tax whose provisions cover a range of products including wine, spirits and tobacco, and leave out one of these products without something looking suspicious.
In the case of Bill C-47, that is what has been done. The government has introduced a review of the Excise Tax provisions for all products except beer. Why? Because an amendment to the Excise Act was in order with respect to beer and the way microbreweries were dealt with.
Earlier, I was listening to the parliamentary secretary to the Prime Minister. He does not know a thing about this issue. The only problem that confronts microbreweries is an excise tax that is too high compared to what their American and European competitors have to pay. That is the only problem. Eliminate this problem, ensure adequate, proper and fair competition—does the notion of fairness exist in the heads of Liberal members opposite?—and microbreweries no longer have a problem. From then on, the competition would be based on the quality of the products. Quebec and Canada are not afraid to see the various products of their microbreweries compete with beers from all over the world, because we have good products, good brewers and good workers in that industry. However, the government must provide a level playing field to ensure fair competition.
This is what we are asking of the Canadian government. This is what was supposed to be included in the new bill and in the proposed amendment to the Excise Act. But we are dealing with hypocrites in the brewery sector. Officials from John Labatt and Molson, who are members of the Brewers Association of Canada and who have been saying since 1997 that they want to help microbreweries correct this injustice, shot them in the back and stabbed them during the legislative process. This is what has happened since 1997.
Recently, we learned that there has been an agreement since 1997 between large Canadian breweries, namely John Labatt and Molson, and the Department of Finance not to include beer in the review of the Excise Act. The only product that is not included and that John Labatt and Molson asked not to be included is beer produced by microbreweries. The president of the Brewers Association of Canada, Mr. Morrison, sent a seemingly innocuous letter in which he tells the Chair of the Standing Committee on Finance that reducing the excise tax must be a priority, that it is a matter of survival for Canadian microbreweries.
It is urgent, but at the same time they do not want the excise tax to go down. What a brilliant lobbyist this president of the Brewers Association of Canada is. That was the wake-up call for microbrewers. And the secretary of state had the gall to argue that we do not have the support of microbreweries. I have to be careful here and not use unparliamentary terms.
There is now an association representing Canadian microbreweries on this issue. It is the only one. It is called the Canadian Council of Regional Brewers. We have the support of this organization, since it asked us to move, before the finance committee, the amendments that were rejected for some frivolous reasons by the member for London West, whose husband is one of the seven directors of Labatt Breweries and also the chair of the taxation committee of the Brewers Association of Canada, which urged us not to reduce the excise tax. The president of the council is Bob King, who also happens to be the CEO of a microbrewery in Alberta.
I just have one little message for my Alliance colleagues who supported our amendments on the first day but later changed their minds. They should realize that we are standing up for their own constituents. If the pressure from Labatt and Molson is getting too much, they should transfer their calls to us. We are not afraid to talk to the directors of Labatt and Molson. We were also subjected to pressure from Labatt, but we held firm. They should do the same to defend their own people. When Bob King has to write to us to extend his support, it means that he does not have the support of the Alliance, and that is too bad.
Stop being being pressured by John Labatt, join with us and stand up for your constituents who work in microbreweries, especially as the president of the brewers association is a fellow from Alberta. Bob King is from Alberta. He is not from Quebec, he is not a separatist. However, he has a social conscience. He knows that if there is no microbrewery left in Canada, the big breweries will take over their share of the market and it will result in a smaller number of products, which will be to the detriment of consumers and industry workers.
Why jeopardize the future of breweries in Quebec and Canada by maintaining an unfair tax treatment as compared to the competition? Because of a big brewery, John Labatt, which is lobbying, acting like a cowboy thinking this is the Far West and it can whip us into submission.
We will stand up to John Labatt and Molson and stand up for our own people. We will stand up for microbreweries. I am asking Alliance members to do the same and to stop acting as John Labatt's lap dogs.
Earlier, in his wisdom, the secretary of state said--I hope the Prime Minister will replace him because he is pitiful--“Listen, we cannot help microbreweries through taxation. It is not good. This is not good regional development policy”. But he knows nothing about this issue.
We are not asking to help regional development through microbreweries, they are already competitive, they put out fantastic products. All we are asking of the government is to put them on an equal footing with the foreign microbreweries that are invading our market and competing unfairly because they benefit from a preferential tax system.
We are also asking the government to open its eyes. Mr. Speaker, could you tell your Liberal colleagues to open their eyes wide open. It is not the Holy Spirit who is flooding the Canadian market with beer from U.S. microbreweries, it is the big breweries, John Labatt and Molson. They are buying exclusive distribution rights to distribute and selling beer from American and European microbreweries on the Canadian market to sink Canadian microbreweries, all the while saying that they are standing up for them.
I am asking my Liberal colleagues to stop letting people walk all over them and to open their eyes. They call themselves great Canadian nationalists. My eye! One cannot be a Canadian nationalist and work solely for big businesses at the expense of Quebecers and Canadians who want to feed their families and develop a quality product, and to do so on an equal footing with their foreign competition.
Give us the same fiscal tools. Give microbreweries the same fiscal tools and the same chances. You will see that we can beat foreign microbreweries on the Quebec and the Canadian market. Do you know why we will beat them? Because we have the best product. We have the best variety of products. We have the best tasting beers in the world. And I am not afraid to say so. We also have the best prices. However, we have to live in a fiscally competitive world and the government has to wake up and stop groveling before John Labatt, Mr. Morrison and John Barnes who, by the way, is the boss of the latest lobbyist for John Labatt who lobbied the Standing Committee on Finance and the finance department so that the excise tax would not be reduced.
I did not make this up. On the Internet, under lobbyist, you can find the name Geoffrey Trussman. His reference and boss at John Labatt's is John Barnes, the spouse of the member for London West who is also chair of the Standing Committee on Finance.