Thank you for the question. I guess the newspaper you are referring to must be the legendary Peterborough Examiner.
The GST cut is important. I think what is most remarkable about the GST cut is that there is actually a government in Canada that has reduced the sales tax, a consumption tax. It's difficult to remember when that last happened, and people quite rightly become a bit cynical about government. Taxes either stay the same or go up, but they don't go down, particularly consumption taxes. So finally there's a tax break for everybody in Canada, not just the two-thirds who pay income tax, but the one-third also who don't, but who buy things and will have the benefit of a tax reduction.
I was happy that it was met with approval by the Canadian Federation of Independent Business and others. I don't mind saying there was some initial concern by some about how it might affect house sales, or car sales, or sales of boats and mobile homes and things like that, but I see already from newspaper advertisements that the entrepreneurial Canadian spirit seems to be triumphing and people are moving forward. The market seems to be dealing with that issue, as it had to deal with it when the GST was introduced some years ago. There's a period of adjustment.
On real estate transactions, I have written to the law associations across Canada to ensure that the lawyers who do real estate work are aware of the transition provisions and how to deal with real estate transactions to make sure consumers who are transferring houses—buying and selling houses, buying new houses, or whatever—in Canada, get the full benefit of the GST provisions in Budget 2006.