Mr. Speaker, I will be sharing my time with the member for Joliette. I take this opportunity to say to the voters from La Pointe-de-l'Île that their member of Parliament is in fine form.
I am proud to be here today to speak in favour of the motion. I will read it and after that, I will explain why I am so happy.
That, in the opinion of the House, the government should negotiate in good faith with the Government of Quebec to resolve the dispute dating back over ten years regarding the harmonization of the QST with the GST in the early 1990s and agree to provide $2.6 billion in compensation to Quebec for this harmonization,—
Up to now, that compensation has been refused.
—and that Quebec continue to administer these harmonized taxes.
The motion must be defended by the Bloc in this House because until now a motion adopted unanimously by the Quebec National Assembly has been rejected by the government. Is it because Quebec is demanding too much? Is it because Quebec is requesting special treatment? No. Quebec only wants to be treated the same way as all other provinces, since the government has changed its mind.
Let us go through the history. First, I will read the unanimous motion passed by Quebec's National Assembly. I repeat, the Bloc Québécois is supporting here the unanimous motion passed by Quebec's National Assembly, which reads as follows:
WHEREAS Québec was the first province to harmonize with the Federal goods and services tax (GST) in the early 1990s;
Quebec was the first province to harmonize with the federal government.
WHEREAS since then, three Atlantic provinces have harmonized with the GST in 1997 and have received compensation for this from the Federal Government totalling close to 1 billion dollars;
WHEREAS the Government of Ontario announced that it would harmonize its sales tax with the GST beginning on 1 July 2010;
WHEREAS the Federal Government will grant a 4.3 billion dollar compensation to Ontario for this harmonization, an amount that is justified in the Canada-Ontario memorandum of understanding particularly owing to the desire to stimulate economic growth and job creation, and the Federal Government will administer this new provincial tax free of charge on behalf of Ontario;
Let me stress that the maritime provinces and Ontario have been compensated.
WHEREAS the Ontario sales tax will be very similar to the Québec sales tax (QST) since certain goods, such as books—
It is the same thing in Ontario.
—will not be subject to the provincial tax and that input tax refunds in Ontario may be identical to those agreed to by Québec—
Inputs are the materials that factories buy to produce their goods.
—for an 8-year period;
WHEREAS Ontario is the fourth province to receive compensation from the Federal Government as part of the harmonization of the provincial and federal sales taxes, while Québec [Quebec says so] has not received any compensation to this day even though it was the first province to harmonize its sales tax;
We read that, and we do not understand. Why did Quebec not receive anything?
BE IT RESOLVED THAT the National Assembly ask the Federal Government to treat Québec justly and equitably, by granting compensation that is comparable to that offered to Ontario for the harmonization of its sales tax with the GST, which would represent an amount of 2.6 billion dollars for Québec.
An amount of $2.6 billion is not exactly pocket change.
Why is it that, so far anyway, the Government of Canada, through its finance minister, has denied Quebec's request? It is hard to understand. After Quebec became the first province to harmonize its sales tax with the GST and the Maritimes negotiated for their three provinces up to $1 billion in compensation, the federal government, a Liberal government at the time, told Quebec that the harmonization costs to these provinces exceeded 5% and they would be compensated, but that Quebec's costs were lower than 5%. Quebec agreed with these terms. However, when the Conservative minister approached Ontario, either directly or through someone else, those terms were dropped. They no longer exist. That is how Ontario was offered $4.6 billion to harmonize its sales tax, with the federal government administering the tax collection at no cost to the province. The federal government is not charging them anything for collecting the provincial sales tax.
My problem is not with the minister being generous with Ontario, but rather with him changing the rules. This means that Ontario stands to receive a substantial amount. The same should be true of Quebec. What was the minister's response to Quebec's request? He started by flatly denying it, arguing that the taxes were not perfectly harmonized. The Quebec minister wrote him back, saying that the necessary changes would be made. After running out of reasons for denying Quebec's request, what did the minister say? He said they would see what they could do, but that the tax would have to be collected by the Government of Canada. Nothing could be more unacceptable to Quebec, which has been recognized as a nation by the Conservative government, than being denied the fundamental right to collect its own taxes.
I strongly wish that this motion is passed by Parliament so that the government negotiate in good faith with the Government of Quebec and pay proper compensation, in all fairness.