Mr. Speaker, I thank my colleague for his highly relevant question relating to financial stability and financial institutions.
Indeed confidence is key. Honesty is key. Sensible, well thought out policy is key. I must say that on all of these counts, the government's income trust policy has been an abject failure. I will give very briefly the reasons.
First of all, the Prime Minister promised as clearly as was possible to promise that he would not tax income trusts. As a consequence, hundreds of thousands of Canadians went into income trusts, at which point the Prime Minister cut them off at their knees and imposed on Canadians a massive $25 billion loss in a single day.
Second, it was the execution of that broken promise by the finance minister that was absolutely incompetent. He dropped the nuclear bomb on the industry which did maximum damage to those individuals who had taken the Prime Minister at his word. Less extreme alternative measures were available that would have achieved the same objectives of tax fairness, but at a small fraction of the damage to Canadians that was caused by the finance minister's reckless plan. He did not think it through. He acted decisively but he was decisively wrong.
I would end by saying that the NDP behaviour on this file is particularly shameful. The Bloc and the Liberals are working to bring amendments to this disastrous legislation, to help in their time of need those Canadians who have suffered billions of dollars of losses in their savings which they need for their retirement. Shamefully, the NDP to this day has refused to assist us to help those ordinary hard-working Canadians in their moment of need.