Mr. Speaker, I fully understand what the member for Chambly—Borduas is saying about money laundering.
The existence of tax havens and tax avoidance also allows for money laundering. Canadian law allows for this tax avoidance, and thus it is not tax evasion in the true sense of the word. Major international mafia and terrorist networks use tax havens for their financial transactions. It is estimated that at least one fifth of the money in tax havens is laundered money.
For the Canadian and U.S. governments to tolerate the existence of tax havens and say they want to fight terrorism, is a paradox.
In the case of CSL International—which no longer belongs to the Prime Minister, but his three sons, as I was saying—last spring the show Enjeux reported that the CSL headquarters in Barbados seemed to be a shell company, which is against Canadian law.
I know that an individual from Quebec filed a complaint with Canada Customs to ensure that CSL International was indeed obeying Canadian law, which is full of loopholes, as I just mentioned. I think this is something worth monitoring.
Now, I totally agree with the hon. member that if we collected our taxes ourselves, we could do things much more rationally.
The municipalities are a good example. Some of Quebec's mayors, especially those from larger cities, were pleased with the government's announcement, but when we look at the numbers there is a subterfuge. Billions of dollars are announced over a lengthy period, but this year only $600 million is being transferred to the municipalities, or $150 million for Quebec.
However, a small municipality of 3,000 people does not have as much of a say as the capital of Quebec. My region has 26 municipalities. The vast majority of these municipalities are better off allowing Quebec to help them choose their investments for infrastructure.