Mr. Speaker, I can see where this crowded House today is going to be involved in a very vigorous debate on this exciting subject as the parliamentary secretary just indicated. This being Friday, I cannot help having a little fun with that individual.
The purpose of having tax treaties with other countries is to avoid double taxation, and that is totally legitimate and defensible, and we support that. People who earn income in another country should not have to pay income tax both there and here. If both countries have income tax rates like ours, where we have the federal tax and the provincial tax, people would end up with maybe 10% of their income, the rest having gone toward taxes. It is important to have these treaties.
I wonder if we could get a tax treaty with Canada. I know that sounds a little bizarre. Canada engages in double taxation and it is time that we put an end to it. For example, there is a provincial tax and a federal excise tax on gasoline. After the cost of the product and tax a and tax b are added up, GST is added on top of all that. That is double taxation. GST is paid on the provincial tax and GST is paid on the federal excise tax. Taxes are being paid on taxes.
Another example is the private member's bill which I just talked about concerning house taxes. For example, if I had a tax bill for my house of $2,400, I would have to earn $4,000 in order to pay it. If we do the math, $4,000 less 40% leaves me with $2,400. That would pay my property tax. That is double taxation. Could we not get a treaty going with Canada to avoid double taxation? Would that not be a neat idea?