Madam Speaker, first of all, before asking my question, I will provide a brief overview of the recent history of Quebec.
At the time of the Quebec elections, in April, the unemployment rate was the lowest ever in the province. Since April and the change of government, the unemployment rate in Quebec has increased by more than 1.1%, and by 0.9% in August alone. Of course, we can make comparisons. The future will tell. History will tell what is happening in Quebec.
However, in the last few months, there is still a sad reality. The unemployment rate is increasing. Our colleague tells us that some investors are gone. In any case, they did not come running back, because the unemployment rate did not improve in Quebec. If anything, it worsened.
Quebeckers—I am proud of this—control more than 30% of the capital invested in Canada, despite those who left during the years when they were not satisfied with the way Quebec was being run.
I have a few questions for my colleague. Since he was an accountant in Bermuda, does he think that it is right that the big Canadian banks can avoid paying $2.1 billion in taxes in Canada? And does he not think that, perhaps, with this money, Canada could help businesses compete with other businesses to keep investments from going to the United States instead of Canada?