Mr. Speaker, I will be sharing my time.
In his budget speech, the federal Minister of Finance clearly expressed his intention on the business tax system. He said that a technical committee would take a comprehensive look at the business tax system guided by three main objectives: to promote jobs and growth, simplify the system and make the system fairer.
The technical committee examining the business tax system will look at corporate income tax and tax paid from commercial activity revenues and will evaluate the level and make-up of these taxes. This measure, also found in the budget, is neither spontaneous nor improvised. In fact the government, and this is something the opposition often forgets, set up a process for consultation and co-operation as part of the last two budgets. This is not the first time, and in fact each time we consult Canadians from one end of the country to the other.
These unprecedented public consultations have encouraged Canadians of all walks to debate the economic and financial problems facing the country as a whole.
On January 1, 1994, for the first time in the country, the House of Commons as a whole met to prepare the budget. In 1995, co-operative efforts to prepare the budget were on an even larger scale.
On October 17, 1995, the Minister of Finance made public a document entitled "New Framework for Economic Policy", which outlined a broad job creation strategy.
As for the 1996 budget, the co-operative effort was still greater in that the Standing Committee on Finance and the minister took more time to listen to views and recommendations on approaches taken to improve the financial situation. Canadians also feel that the Liberal government listens to them in order to achieve the economic, fiscal and financial objectives that have been set.
Although, from the time of its election, the opposition was in agreement on the urgency of tax reform, it nevertheless made a number of proposals. Until now, the Bloc proposals have precluded the achievement of the two objectives essential to any tax reform, namely: that government should be able to collect the taxes it needs to function and that economic development should be encouraged.
Bloc members often harp on loopholes, as do other parties, and claims of overly generous corporate tax regimes, as if these were the only reason for the deficit. They have no conception of how to use the tax system in a balanced and judicial way to collect revenues and promote economic development.
Let us look at the response to the budget measure reducing the labour sponsored venture capital corporation, the LSVCC tax credit. The LSVCC has more than three year's worth of capital to invest. However, the Bloc wants that credit in place, I guess to ensure that high income Canadians do not miss the beneficial tax break.
In the minority report on the finance committee's prebudget consultations, the BQ recommended a complete review of the tax system be undertaken. Apparently it is not satisfied even when the government agrees with it as we have in this case. The Bloc went on to criticize Canadian businesses that use loss carry forwards which allow businesses to balance their tax loads over good and bad years. The Bloc wants this eliminated and replaced with a minimum corporate tax on small business. This would not create jobs, just the opposite. The Bloc clearly still does not get it: Canadians want jobs and its recommendations would not create a single one.
Let us not forget what the Quebec minister of finance said recently in a speech. I do not have the exact quote but he said that Quebec will be a tax haven after separation. I would like to have hon. members tell me exactly what the minister of finance of Quebec meant by a tax haven.
Later in the minority report under the heading, Recommendations for an Effective Attack on Unemployment, Bloc members tell the federal government to get out of regional development and tourism altogether and transfer more tax points which they have elsewhere claimed are worthless to the provinces.
None of these measures would create a single job either in Quebec or elsewhere. Let us not forget it does not fit in the ultimate scheme of Bloc members because if we create jobs, the Canadian federation works. That is exactly what they do not want. They do not want it to work. Their ultimate aim is the breakup of this country, a separation.
The government, the provinces and the private sector are working together constructively on the Canadian Tourism Commission, an initiative that has been praised as both effective and harmonious by all participants. Nobody on the commission would support the Bloc's contention that the federal government should abandon its initiative.
The most astonishing thing of all in the Bloc's arguments is their claim that the government is not acting with complete transparency. On the one hand, they criticize the fact that the technical committee set up by the Minister of Finance is composed of members who are taxation experts, whom they describe as judge and judged, when the whole process is public, from the preparation of the budget down to the discussion concerning the taxation review, as mentioned by the Minister of Finance during question period last Monday, and I quote:
Any discussion concerning the taxation review will certainly be public, because the objective of that committee is really to prepare a background document that will be used for consultation, undoubtedly by parliamentarians, including members of the finance committee with his colleague.
Any government turns to experts when looking at more specific questions. Contractors are then engaged from outside the government without calls for tender.
Do not forget that the Government of Quebec also called on experts recently during the Quebec referendum. And do not forget the billions of dollars spent by the Quebec government for the very purpose of consulting the experts, friendly experts of course.
I would like to finish by saying that once again-
