Mr. Speaker, I am assuming the hon. member is suggesting the 1,700 corporations that exist in Barbados should not be there. He is suggesting that because we have a tax treaty with Barbados, and full transparency and accountability, that somehow we should ignore that.
We have it, as I said, with other states, including Luxembourg, which was a favourite of course of the Bloc. We know that the Bloc was trying to model its approach on the so-called tax havens in Luxembourg. It was okay for Luxembourg but apparently it was not okay for Barbados.
Really, the government took action in 1992 as soon as the Auditor General dealt with the issue of avoidance by foreign affiliates of Canadian companies. I outlined very clearly in my remarks the steps that the government has taken with regard to Barbados.
If the Bloc would like us to eliminate the treaty with Barbados, as I assume it does with Luxembourg and all the other states with which we have treaties, then we will have very interesting implications for Canadian corporations around the world. Maybe the Bloc does not believe in globalization. Maybe it does not believe in ensuring that Canadian jobs are here. Maybe it does not believe that things are good for this economy if we have this international competitiveness. If it does, that is probably why it has the seats that it has today.