Madam Chair, we all know that leaders in certain areas have the habit of telling their people not to come to them with a problem but rather with a solution to the problem. I am going to try to do just that.
I raised the issue of seniors many times. So far, they have gotten disproportionately little attention from the government. We estimate our request will cost about $1 billion, while the government has committed to spending over $250 billion in a way that seems acceptable to us overall. We helped determine how that money would be spent.
Today there is new interest in an initiative that was launched in Denmark and that has supposedly been adopted by Poland and the United Kingdom in a way that fits their own taxation and legal systems. It involves making businesses that are registered abroad ineligible for various forms of government assistance. Such an initiative would make it possible to save a lot of money that could be used to fund the assistance we want to give seniors. That seems to be an option to consider.
The number is so big that no one can agree on how much it would be. We are talking about billions of dollars, money that legally does not come back to Canada. The fact that this tax avoidance is legal does not make it right.
As he prepares to spend tens of billions of dollars of Quebeckers' and Canadians' money, did the Prime Minister consider this course of action?
Will he say that none of our measures are accessible to businesses that are registered abroad and consequently engaging in tax avoidance?