Mr. Speaker, I would like to thank my colleague for her question.
In fact, this is not just an attack on workers; it is attack on all Canadians. Unions do not benefit from the tax credit for labour-sponsored funds, Canadians do. Taxpayers are the ones who invest in these funds because they want to invest in their local economy, and they are the ones who will pay the price.
In one breath, the government is clawing back $350 million that was allocated as tax credits for labour-sponsored funds, and in the next breath, it is handing $400 million to private companies that have the same mandate but are much less effective and less focused on regional economic development.
Why are we taking $355 million that would go to taxpayers and giving it to venture capital companies to fund them, bail them out or create new companies? That makes no sense. The government has said that it wants tax neutrality, but labour-sponsored funds and credit unions are now at a disadvantage compared to their private counterparts, because they have a very different mandate. From this point on, taxation can no longer reflect that reality.