Mr. Speaker, every once in a while the Bloc Québécois members give a demonstration of why they will never form the government and that speech was one of them.
I find it inconceivable that somehow or another the government should just simply hand Canadians money and hope they spend the money on energy retrofits, but if they do not that is just simply too bad.
That seemed to be the central thesis of the hon. member's speech, which was, “What a terrible system”. The terrible system is that the government says Canadians may or may not qualify for this particular program. If they do qualify, we will give them moneys based upon the areas in which their retrofit qualifies. I cannot fathom how the government would approach it in any other way.
We simply cannot write cheques to people and say that we hope they do something, that we know their Jacuzzi was a little extra but we will pay for their Jacuzzi, or that they were not entirely putting insulation in their roof but were putting in some nicer windows and things of that nature, which may or may not be better in regard to retrofits.
I frankly do not understand how the government could approach it in any other way, other than to say that this is the program that is available, and yes, the risk is theirs. If they make renovations to their houses which do not qualify, then they will not receive government money, nor should they receive it. The hon. member seems to be upset that this will be a risk on the part of the homeowner. That is my number one question. I cannot imagine why he would propose what he is proposing.
Number two, he seems to think that the energy companies are not participating in funding for this. I would ask him to look a little more closely at the financial statements of the Government of Canada, particularly in the section on corporate income tax revenues over the last one or two years, which have increased from about 10% of the revenues of the government to 14% of the revenues of the government.
There is a taxation point at royalties. There is a taxation point at dividends. There is a taxation point at the corporations themselves. There is a taxation point at the recipient of the dividends. There is a surtax. All of this leads lead to an effective marginal rate of something in the order of 36% to 38%.