Madam Speaker, it is an honour for me to once again rise in the House, even at this late hour, to debate some very important issues facing the people of Drummond.

I am here tonight for the adjournment debate because I wanted to come back to a question that I asked the Minister of Families, Children and Social Development about the difficulties that Canadians are facing on a daily basis and the way the Liberal government treats ordinary Canadians relative to rich corporate executives. When rich corporate executives ask for help, the Liberals come to their rescue. They bend over backwards to meet the demands of the wealthy, the much-talked-about 1% of our society. It is really unfair. The Liberals seem to have two sets of rules: one set for the wealthiest members of our society and another for everyone else, who has to wait.

I can give some very specific examples. On May 30, the CBC reported that some wealthy clients of KPMG, an accounting firm that serves the wealthiest one per cent, were accused of using a fraudulent scheme to avoid paying taxes and reached an out-of-court settlement with the Canada Revenue Agency. They paid no penalties, and do not have to repay hardly any taxes. It is an out-of-court settlement. They are protecting rich fraudsters.

When people in my riding make a mistake on their tax return, they immediately receive a letter sometimes accusing them of fraud and demanding immediate repayment of the full amount, with interest. The rich get off with an out-of-court settlement.

The Liberals said they would fight tax havens. However, during their term in office, they signed agreements with notorious tax havens such as Grenada and Antigua and Barbuda. These are two notorious tax havens in the Caribbean. When it comes to tax havens, the Liberals do not have the solution because they are part of the problem.

I mentioned other examples that will help Canadians and the people of the greater Drummond area. The homelessness partnering strategy, or HPS, and the Canada-Quebec agreement come to mind. According to the Table des partenaires en itinérance de Drummondville, the federal government's current approach flies in the face of the priorities, needs and practices on the ground. That is why the organization and other community groups want the homelessness partnering strategy to take a comprehensive community-based approach to fighting homelessness and wants to maintain that approach.

Will the Liberal government finally crack down on tax havens and take a comprehensive community-based approach to fighting homelessness in order to meet the needs of ordinary Canadians?

François Choquette

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Adjournment Proceedings

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