Madam Speaker, I hope in the conversations with his constituents, the hon. member mentioned that tax brackets were reduced and thresholds were increased. Canadians are paying, in absolute terms, fewer taxes than they have in the past. I am not absolutely persuaded that the hon. member would have tried to put that forward to his constituents. However, I hope he at least mentioned that the brackets were reduced to 22% and the threshold was increased to $35,000 for low income Canadians, which is 26%. Also, the threshold has been increased to $70,000 for middle income Canadians. The upper bracket is at 29% and the threshold is up to $113,000. However, I do not really have a huge expectation that he did that.
With respect to his specific question, there is no doubt that all governments of the G-7, in fact all governments of OECD, are concerned with the siting of corporations in jurisdictions that have tax advantages. Frankly, Canadian corporations are no different than American, Australian or British corporations, all which have to site themselves according to the tax jurisdiction that makes them the most competitive. If they do not, frankly they literally go underwater. There is no ability to do that.
Literally, hundreds if not thousands of Canadian corporations site themselves in jurisdictions where the tax treatment is somewhat more favourable. That is simply a survival tactic. There is not a government in the western world that is not concerned about this. In fact a commission has recently been struck among the Australians, the Americans, the British and ourselves to review this problem.
The problem is one cannot do anything by oneself. If Canada has a sudden attack of virginity, frankly all the corporations in Canada, which currently site themselves offshore, will simply remove themselves. We will lose head offices, those businesses and everything that corporations bring to the wealth of this nation.
I would like to have the problem solved so everybody pays a share of the tax that is appropriate. However, as long as those jurisdictions exist, a corporation does what it has to do to survive. If it does not take advantage of those kinds of tax jurisdictions, it will simply not survive.
If the hon. member has a realistic solution to this worldwide problem in which Canada can participate along with other nations at an exactly equal level, then I am in favour of listening to it.