It's interesting that Mr. Dykstra brought up the issue of the affordability of consumption taxes to lower-income earners.
Just as you indicated that possibly we shouldn't confuse one objective with another, we have proposed that the GST should not be reduced further. If there is a feeling that an incentive has to be given to lower-income earners, I wouldn't do it through consumption tax. You always have the ability to provide relief on the GST to the individuals earning less than a certain threshold through a credit mechanism. But I wouldn't do an across-the-board reduction of the GST just to benefit that selected constituency. There are other means. The consumption tax is a broad measure that applies across all of the constituencies.
If you want to target benefits to the low-income earners, there are other ways.