Mr. Speaker, I asked the Minister of Finance a question a few weeks ago regarding the former minister of finance, the member for LaSalle—Émard, who was the owner of Canada Steamship Lines and who, by all reports, at least on the Liberal side of the House, will be the next Prime Minister of Canada.
I suggest there is a conflict of interest in the ownership of that line in regard to what the hon. member did when he was finance minister. I just want to review what he did.
As the owner of the Canada Steamship Lines, the member for LaSalle—Émard, the next Prime Minister of Canada if the Liberal Party is correct in what it is saying, when he was the minister of finance he effectively created a loophole in the Income Tax Act to escape paying taxes in Canada. I find it unbelievable that a future Prime Minister of Canada and a former finance minister would manipulate the Income Tax Act to suit himself personally. He knew that the loophole was there and he refused to close it.
This is not just my opinion as a member of Parliament. This is also the opinion of the Auditor General. In her annual report of 2002 she acknowledged that.
What the member for LaSalle—Émard successfully did was he avoided paying taxes. The following is an example of what happens to Canada Steamship Lines with the effective tax break that it created in Barbados for itself. It avoids paying corporate tax in Canada. Corporate tax in Canada is about 28%.
Instead, because the member for LaSalle—Émard allowed that loophole to exist in the Income Tax Act, an act which he controlled as finance minister, Canada Steamship Lines now pays taxes in the range of 1% to 2.5% in Barbados.
The ships that are owned by the former finance minister also operate under what we call flags of convenience. Canada Steamship Lines may be based in Canada but it operates under flags of convenience, including under the flags of countries like Barbados, which I mentioned, Bermuda, China and Singapore, to name a few. It allows that company today as we speak to pay lower wages. The employees on those boats do not have the same benefits as do employees working on a ship registered in Canada.
I find it wrong when a finance minister of Canada can create his own rules to operate his own company and still remain in cabinet. That is the question I put to the Minister of Finance but I do not think he accurately responded to that question. There is a big concern, at least on this side of the House, and, generally speaking, on the part of the public itself in terms of how a minister of the crown could be allowed to do that. My question is, why?