Mr. Speaker, in my riding I share many social injustices. We have over 10% unemployment in a large section of my riding. We have homelessness. We have many people crying out for aid, assistance and support. It is not as though I do not share a concern or a thought along with my colleague from across the House but we have social injustices across the country. How can we single out one industry and sort of throw on its back that it is the only reason for all of the social injustices? I do not think so.
As an example, the pharmaceutical industry, notoriously or famously, is one of the most profitable industries in the world and in my colleague's province it is a very profitable industry. Should we put a surcharge on that industry to help pay for the social injustices that occur in her province or in Nova Scotia or in British Columbia?
I am not suggesting there are not imbalances but our taxation system is not just there to spread the wealth but also to create the wealth. We cannot kill the golden goose that lays the golden egg. Every sort of dog has its turn. The industry has been severely threatened on occasion and dollars were poured into the western industry to help get it off the ground and make it through. The industry is now contributing back to the GDP, a lot of tax revenue is coming back and a lot of that tax revenue is being distributed across the country.
Let us look at the aerospace industry in my colleague's province. Hundreds of millions of dollars went into that industry every year for many years to help promote the industry. Could that money have gone toward social injustices? Possibly, yes, but that industry has created many jobs and has created quite a tax return for the province and for the country.
Where do we draw the line on the balance with targeting specific industries that are maybe strong today but in five years, two years or six months down the road are not? I do not think it is fair to put a surcharge on a particular industry and target just that industry at a particular time.
I can see it in an overall policy, in an overall platform, in an overall tax structure or tax regime where we have a corporate structure of taxes, where the finance minister, with the input of my colleagues on all sides of the House, negotiate the levels of taxation for corporations, for private people, for individuals and for non-charities. I think that is a reasonable argument. However, I think it is wrong to suggest that we can target one particular area.
Could I have the member's response to that?