Mr. Speaker, I listened intently to the hon. member's comments. Many members in the House may well remember that when the hon. member was serving as parliamentary secretary to the minister of finance in the former government he actually was out in front of his government. I believe that he believed in tax fairness, because he was on the record on several occasions as saying that the government of the day needed to move toward taxing trusts.
Then he was kneecapped by the then minister of finance from Wascana, who decided no, the Liberals would tax dividends instead. It did not work. They did not understand that a lot of it was foreign-held investment.
What I would like to ask the member, since he does sit on the finance committee with me, is whether he remembers the words of the governor of the Bank of Canada, who said, “Clearly, there has been a very significant tax incentive to use the income trust form of organization in cases where this would not have been the appropriate form of organization...”.
Further, the Bank of Canada governor went on to say that “the tax system was actually creating inefficiencies in capital markets--inefficiencies that, over time, would lead to lower levels of investment, output and productivity”.
Is that what the Liberal Party is arguing for here today? Lower levels of investment, opportunity and productivity? Is that what the member is standing up for? Less tax fairness and more breaks for buddies? Why does he not believe in tax fairness?