Mr. Speaker, I appreciate the opportunity to take part in this debate on the Group No. 3 amendments to Bill C-70.
The issue here is not the GST or the HST in debating the harmonization of the GST. The real issue here today in this House is accountability, integrity and responsibility. The issue here is damage control, damage to this Liberal government for a failed broken promise.
Earlier today, and I think it is the 27th time, this Liberal government brought in closure to cut off debate. Time allocation is the nice term that is used but it is a violation of the democratic process which would allow a full debate on an issue that is so important as this one.
This is one of two major broken promises made by this government. There may have been 170 or 180 promises in the red book but there are only two promises in that red book that counted heavily with about 90 per cent of Canadians who put their trust in this government. One of course was jobs, jobs, jobs and the other was the fact that the Liberals were going to scrap, abolish and get rid of the GST. We do not have the jobs and we do have the GST. We have the old campaign of say whatever to get elected and then once elected do whatever.
Let us talk about jobs before I get back to the GST. This government cannot run and hide from its failure in jobs. The UI stats prove monthly its ongoing failure to create the jobs that our children and grandchildren are looking for. The government cannot avoid that.
Three years have been spent trying to deal with that problem and with no success and still no understanding of what has to be done. This Liberal government has still failed to connect the fact that high taxes are what contribute to high levels of unemployment. The Liberals ran on a $6 billion infrastructure program that was supposed to kick start the economy and create the jobs that they had promised in the red book and they failed.
As a matter of fact the auditor general has criticized the $6 billion infrastructure program as a waste of tax dollars and a failure in creating the jobs. Unbelievably, the Liberals are looking at another one, only this time instead of being $6 billion which failed, apparently they believe that something less than that will be successful. Is there no one in the government asking the question: What we are doing is not working, why should we be looking for a better way?
The Prime Minister got up in the House today and talked about jobs. The only jobs that we can take credit for in this country right now really have come about because of free trade and NAFTA, two programs the Liberal government strongly opposed when in opposition. As a matter of fact, another red book promise was that the Liberals were going to rewrite NAFTA. Thank God they did not because it is creating a few jobs in this country.
Let me come back to the GST, the other major broken promise. I would like to quote the member for Mississauga South who in debate in the House on February 6 said that the Liberals had wrestled with this GST problem, debated it at great length, held
hearings and lo and behold, what did they discover? They discovered that the best replacement for the GST is the GST. Yes, the best replacement for the GST is the GST, as far as the member for Mississauga South is concerned.
The member for Mississauga South is a new member, like myself, new to this place and new to the debate. However, I would point out that there are 19 members in the cabinet of this government who were here in opposition when the GST was introduced. They knew what the chances were of harmonization. As a matter of fact the current finance minister opposed harmonization. He said it would be a terrible mistake.
We should look at some of the quotes from the Liberals when they were in opposition. Here are some of the things they said. I do not think we need to talk about the Deputy Prime Minister again. Canadians from coast to coast know very well what she said and then failed to keep her promise, or at least she failed to keep it until a poll was taken to show that she would be re-elected if she did keep her promise.
Back in 1990 the then finance critic, now the defence minister, said the Liberal Party would scrap the GST. The Liberals pledged that in a nationally televised debate with the then finance minister, Michael Wilson. He went on to say: "The goods and services tax is a regressive tax that has to be scrapped and we will scrap it". There was nothing about harmonization. There were no weasel words in there. It was very clear.
Here is a quote from the current Liberal House leader. Again back in 1990 when in opposition he said: "Not only do the Liberals oppose the GST now, that opposition will continue even if the bill is passed. We are not interested in tinkering with the GST. We do not want it at all". What is harmonization? Those are very strong words. No weasel words there. It is very clear. Of course the current finance minister said: "I will abolish the GST".
The leadership of that party when in opposition knew very well the problems they were facing in dealing with the GST. Now that we have heard quotes from the Liberals, let us look at what the provinces are saying about harmonizing the GST. The member for Etobicoke-Lakeshore talked about support in Ontario, which I have yet to identify.
Certainly the premier of Ontario has consistently claimed that the federal harmonization plan will cost Ontario consumers between $2 billion and $3 billion a year. With figures like that I do not know how it is going help charities in Ontario with a $2 billion to $3 billion tax increase because of harmonization. The premier of Ontario also went to say that the subsidization package given to the three Atlantic provinces represents a bribe and warned that more and more provinces are going to be disenchanted by this kind of bribery and this kind of government.
The finance minister of Ontario, Ernie Eves, said: "It really offloads about $3 billion annually from businesses to consumers. This is not acceptable. I would say the issue is dead".
Let us talk about the almost a billion dollars that was going to flow to the provinces to encourage them to harmonize. The federal government receives 41 per cent of its revenue from Ontario. One could make the argument that 41 per cent of any amount of money the federal government spends is Ontario taxpayers' money. It could be argued that Ontario will be subsidizing the $961 million bribe to the tune of $400 million. I do not think that is appropriate and I do not think that is fair to the taxpayers of Ontario.
The cost of harmonization to the typical Ontario family that earns $30,000 to $40,000 a year represents an additional $185 in taxes. I do not know how the members from Ontario who sit in this government can defend this very unfair tax grab.
This government was elected on restoring integrity. It knew the problem. I am sure its members heard of it at the same doors I knocked on. They even devoted a chapter in their red book to that subject. I will quote from one paragraph on page 95 where they recognized the problem and said they would deal with it by appointing an ethics commissioner: "In particular, a Liberal government will appoint an independent ethics counsellor to advise both public officials and lobbyists in the day to day application of the code of conduct for public officials". The ethics commissioners was to report to Parliament.
That is what it says in the red book. In fact, the ethics commissioner reports to the Prime Minister. What was to be a watch dog has become a lap dog. From that point on the promises in this red book went right down the drain.
This coming election will be about integrity. Canadians are looking for a party with a vision for the future. They know the government has no credibility, whatever it promises.