Mr. Speaker, the economic statement does not include anything to help the manufacturing sector, despite unanimous recommendations issued over a year ago by the Standing Committee on Industry, Science and Technology. Two of those recommendations were particularly interesting. The first was accelerated capital cost allowance, which would make it possible for businesses to improve their productivity. The second was the refundable research and development tax credit to enable businesses to get the funds they need immediately.
The government told us that these measures would cost too much. But these are not tax expenditures for the government because they are actually deferred taxes. Businesses that benefit from accelerated capital cost allowance on investments pay less tax when they amortize the equipment, but once the amortization is done, they will pay more taxes, taxes that would otherwise have been paid sooner. The same applies to refundable research and development tax credits. If businesses try to claim the credit now, when they are not making a profit, that is indeed an expenditure for the government. At any rate, the tax expenditure would be engendered when the business makes a profit and claims these credits.
In this case, the two measures proposed by the Bloc Québécois and supported unanimously by members of the Standing Committee on Industry, Science and Technology would cost the government very little. They would give struggling businesses the resources they need to get through the manufacturing and forestry crises.
Instead, the government decided to put all of its resources into cutting taxes, a move that will only benefit companies that are doing well.
My question for the parliamentary secretary is as follows: Can he tell the House that he understands that these two specific measures are simply deferred taxes and that nobody is asking for special handouts for the manufacturing industry?