Jim Flaherty

[Taxation, May 15th, 2007]

First of all, Mr. Speaker, I want to thank the member for Kings—Hants for changing his mind yesterday and announcing last night on television that he supports the measures we are taking against tax havens. I thank him for his change of heart on that. It is very important.

He is being consistent now, I note, with when he was a Conservative and said in this place that tax havens “are robbing the Canadian tax base in our ability to pay for the social investment and also to create a more competitive tax system”.

He was right as a Conservative and we are correct as Conservatives now.

[Taxation, May 14th, 2007]

Mr. Speaker, I know the member opposite wants us to take on the corporations. She wants us to take on the corporations when they take a double deduction and claim an interest deduction in this country and an interest deduction somewhere else.

That is exactly what we are doing, because Canadian taxpayers, ordinary, hard-working Canadians, should not be indirectly subsidizing corporations in this country. I am sure the finance critic for the NDP will support this initiative by the Government of Canada.

[Taxation, May 14th, 2007]

Mr. Speaker, the clarification must have it about right, because we have the Liberals supporting corporate Canada and the NDP supporting another point of view.

Our point of view is a balanced one, that is, we want to reduce taxes overall and continue to do that in Canada. In two budgets so far, we have reduced taxes over the course of three fiscal years by almost $38 billion, taxes of all kinds, including personal taxes, corporate taxes, excise taxes and consumption taxes in Canada.

We want to continue to do that. For that, we must have a level playing field. Everybody must pay their fair share.

[Equalization, May 14th, 2007]

Mr. Speaker, as the member opposite knows, our government and our Prime Minister are totally committed to the Atlantic accords and the provinces can continue with the Atlantic accords if they choose to do so.

However, I am reminded of the income trust issue. As the member opposite well knows, his reaction to that was to demonstrate that he has the fastest thumbs in the east.

[Taxation, May 14th, 2007]

Mr. Speaker, I do not know any more what the position is of those members opposite. They were against double-dips. Now I think they are in favour of double-dips.

They seem to think that not only should ordinary Canadian taxpayers subsidize these large multinational corporations that are using tax loopholes, but of course they also believe that Canadian taxpayers should subsidize the Liberal Party of Canada.

[Taxation, May 14th, 2007]

Mr. Speaker, here is the Liberal position on income trusts: first of all, when those members were in government they did nothing, and then when they are in opposition they say we should do nothing. Then we do something and they say, “Oh, my. I guess we should tax it too”. That is the current position of this government.

What do those members say about tax havens? When they were in government they received all the reports on tax havens. What did they do about them? Nothing. There were 13 years of nothing.

Liberal members do not care about Canadian taxpayers. All they want to do is defend tax havens for their corporate friends.

[Taxation, May 14th, 2007]

Mr. Speaker, I did not hear a question, but I assume that comment was about interest deductibility and the use of tax havens.

Let us hear the position of the Liberal Party through its critic the member for Markham—Unionville. Once again, this is classic Liberal doublespeak. On May 7 he said, “When [the finance minister] says that we should go after abuses by tax havens and double-dipping, we agree”. What did he say in the Globe and Mail this morning? He criticized the minister's attack on double-dipping.

The problem with the Liberal Party is that it does not have the courage to take a stand in favour of ordinary Canadians.

[Taxation, May 14th, 2007]

Mr. Speaker, I agree with the member opposite that yes, there are some corporations that are not paying their fair share as a result of their use of tax avoidance loopholes, and yes, there is more work to be done.

I hope that the member will support the work we are doing so far. For the first time since the reports of the Auditor General and since the report of the Mintz committee, all of which were ignored by the Liberals opposite, as they did nothing for 13 years, we have a government that is protecting Canadians and their families for a fair share of paying taxes in this country and not subsidizing corporations.

[Taxation, May 14th, 2007]

Mr. Speaker, I am pleased to confirm, as I did this morning, that our government will maintain its commitment with respect to the double deduction of interest by some multinational corporations in Canada that use tax havens obviously outside Canada. This is a form of subsidy by Canadian taxpayers of corporations using a loophole for tax avoidance. We are opposed to that. It is contrary to the principle of tax fairness. We are levelling the playing field so that we can lower taxes, not only for Canadian individuals but for their families and for corporations as well.

[Corporate Takeovers, May 14th, 2007]

Mr. Speaker, I am sure that the member knows we have many global Canadian corporations that have made and in fact are making very substantial acquisitions abroad. There is an element of reciprocity here. I suggest the hon. member consider that if we are to put up walls in this country, are other countries not to put up walls to our own corporations seeking to expand abroad? This is a two way street.

We do have strong Canadian corporations, global corporations that are getting stronger because of the strength of the Canadian economy and government policy.