Madam Speaker, I would like the hon. member's views on an aspect of this tax haven loophole system.
Thanks to regulatory loopholes companies can transfer profits earned in Canada to a paper company in Barbados or Luxembourg or the Cayman Islands which, through an accounting sleight of hand, allows them to transform those taxable profits into expenses they can then deduct on their Canadian tax returns because they are subject to a global view of their economic activities. What is the hon. member's view of that particular aspect of what we consider to be outrageous tax loopholes, that the companies can transfer profits earned in this country to their shell companies?
We know that CSL has nine shell companies in Barbados. Enron had 881 shell companies in Barbados. It is a common practice among corporations. This is one of the tricks that Canadians are not aware of, that companies can take profits earned here and write them off as expenses in that shell company through current loopholes that exist today.
Is the member aware of that? Does he also condone and champion that kind of cheating the Canadian public out of its tax revenues?