Doug Peters

[Excise Tax Act, February 10th, 1997]

I think a pack of yahoos have infiltrated the Reform Party benches.

I asked the clerk: "What do you know about the taxes?" He said: "I don't know anything. I don't have to know anything". However, if we go into any Canadian store and ask the clerk if they know about the sales taxes, they will answer: "Yes, there is 8 per cent and 7 per cent in Ontario. There is a different one in Newfoundland, a different one in P.E.I. and a different one in Nova Scotia".

This harmonized sales tax will be of serious benefit not just to consumers, who will know when they see the price, but it will be of real benefit to business. Businesses will not have to register for the harmonized sales tax. It will be already registered. Everyone who has registered for the GST will be registered again.

How will a new business be treated? Instead of having to register for a provincial sales tax and a federal sales tax, it will have to register for one sales tax.

Reform Party members have quoted a number of people. Here is a GST quote. This is from The Atlantic Provinces Economic Council: "The potential benefits of harmonization can be easily laid out. By broadening the base of taxation, harmonization will make the system more equitable and reduce the incentive for tax based consumption or investment decisions. Harmonization should also simplify tax collection procedures, reducing the red tape required to administer the sales tax for both business and government. A common system among the three provinces with a full system of input tax credits will also result in the removal of a barrier to interprovincial trade and may reduce the amount of activity in the underground economy".

[Excise Tax Act, February 10th, 1997]

I hear the Reform Party member telling me that he does not want two sets of rules. He wants a provincial set of sales tax rules and a federal set of sales tax rules. Instead of that, under a harmonized sales tax rule we will have a single set of rules. A single set of rules will be applied to all business.

I was in London, England where I walked into a store and bought an article. I went to pay for it and it cost five pounds. I down my five pounds and asked how much more I needed but that was all it cost.

[Excise Tax Act, February 10th, 1997]

Unfortunately, Mr. Speaker, it is not God that is here. It is just the secretary of state.

I am delighted to speak on this subject. Having listened to my colleagues, especially my colleague from Halifax who just recently spoke, about the effect of this tax on consumers, I would like to see if the opposition parties might think about the business aspect of this.

I know the Reform Party would not be interested in the fact that businesses are going to improve their efficiency with this thing, that there will be one set of rules instead of two. No, the Reform Party wants two set of rules.

[Taxation, February 7th, 1997]

Mr. Speaker, further to a request made in an exchange between the Minister of Finance and his colleague the hon. member for Saint-Hyacinthe-Bagot on Wednesday, February 5, I am pleased to table a list of tax fairness measures introduced by this government over the last three years.

[Employment, February 7th, 1997]

Mr. Speaker, when are members of the Reform Party going to get it through through their heads that lowering taxes for the wealthy and increasing taxes for the poor is not going to create jobs. It is going to destroy jobs. That is the basis for the tax policy of the Reform Party.

The policies of the government have created almost 800,000 jobs in the past three years and that is a good record.

[Employment, February 7th, 1997]

Mr. Speaker, the question the hon. member raises is one of extreme importance. Jobs are the priority for our government. The labour force survey that just came out which showed only an increase of 5,000 jobs in the last month was disappointing.

But let me add that there are some very positive items in that report. There were 32,000 full time jobs created last month. There have been 91,000 jobs created since last September, just in the last few months. Almost all the forecasters indicate that this year will be a strong job growth year, a strong economic growth year.

[Prisons And Reformatories Act, February 4th, 1997]

moved that Bill C-53, an act to amend the Prisons and Reformatories Act, be now read the third time and passed.

[Prisons And Reformatories Act, February 4th, 1997]

moved that the bill be concurred in.

(Motion agreed to.)

[Ways And Means, December 11th, 1996]

Mr. Speaker, pursuant to Standing Order 83(1), I wish to table a notice of ways and means motion to amend the Excise Tax Act. I am also tabling explanatory notes. I would ask that an order of the day be designated for consideration of the motion.

[Excise Tax Act, December 10th, 1996]

moved:

That in relation to Bill C-70, an act to amend the Excise Tax Act, the Federal-Provincial Fiscal Arrangements Act, the Income Tax Act, the Debt Servicing and Reduction Account Act and related acts, not more than one further sitting shall be allotted to the consideration of the second reading stage of this bill and fifteen minutes before the expiry of time provided for government business on the day allotted to the consideration of the second reading stage of the said bill, any proceedings before the House shall be interrupted, if required for the purpose of this order, and in turn every question necessary for the disposal of the stage of the bill then under consideration shall be put forthwith and successively without further debate or amendment.