Mr. Speaker, if the member is asking me for the history of these taxes, it has to be Canadian government policy that corporate tax, as well as personal tax, has to be put into a competitive framework.
That competitive framework is determined by a number of things.
It means that a company can do business in Canada, hire people and have a reasonable expectation of keeping some of the money it makes. That is the first part of it.
The other part of it is that we have to see what our major trading partners are doing. Again, I am quite sure that this escapes everyone in the New Democratic Party, but if taxation rates in Canada are considerably higher than they are in the United States or the United Kingdom, Europe, Japan and other countries, that actually hurts us. It hurts us. It means that people will not invest money in Canada and therefore they will not hire individuals.
Over the years that has been one of the cornerstones of Canadian taxation policy, I think, that is, to allow free enterprise to flourish. That is what we want. At the same time we want to make sure that we stay competitive with the people with whom we trade and compete. That has been the policy over the years.
I really think this is an exception and a bad exception as well. I hope I have answered the hon. member's question.