Mr. Speaker, I am always very pleased to rise and speak in the House. On September 19, I talked about taxation and the new Liberal tax, as I was calling it. I must say that today, considering some of the meetings I have had since September 19 in my riding and elsewhere, I realized that the government is in a hurry. It is in a hurry and wants to pass legislation. We held a vote earlier to extend the consultations. They voted against the motion, although it made a lot of sense.
This morning we met with the Fédération des chambres de commerce du Québec, and its representatives are very concerned, just like all chambers of commerce everywhere in Canada.
We were told this morning that the legislation that the Liberals want to bring in will make it harder to transfer businesses from one generation to the next and to keep head offices in Canada. The Minister of Finance said he was open, that he was listening and paying attention to the comments being made. However, that is not what we heard this morning, and I quote:
We have met with the minister several times, but the government seems to be in a hurry to pass this legislation. So far, it has been rather resistant to the suggestions and comments made by entrepreneurs.
It is worrisome. When people come to see us in our ridings or meet us on the street, they do not know what party we belong to and that is just fine.
That is just fine because we were elected to listen to the public. This is a bill that the Liberals want to pass and it is making people anxious not just in Quebec, where I am from, but across the country. On that score, I find that when we ask questions, and I have been in the government, they always answer with the same meaningless talking points.
Could the government, for once, realize that the consultations should have continued because people do not really understand everything that is in this legislative measure? Could the government explain it to the Canadians, SMEs, and entrepreneurs who are scared and give them time to digest and understand this bill?
That is not what the government is doing. It is too bad, but if this keeps up, businesses back home, and I met with about a dozen of them, will move to the United States.
Why? Because they will not be taxed as much there as they are in Canada. We will lose the very businesses that are our bread and butter, the ones that create jobs. That is what I am asking the government to consider.
When the government wants to pass legislation, it has to explain what it is and not just on July 18 at a barbeque when everyone is on vacation and farmers are in the fields. That is unacceptable.