Thank you, Mr. Chair.
Thank you, Minister, for appearing today before the committee.
In your opening remarks, you made reference to some measures your government has already taken in order to provide financial relief to Canadians. Among them were items from the supply and confidence agreement with respect to the dental benefit, the Canada housing benefit and the doubling of the GST tax credit that New Democrats had been pushing the government to do for some time this year before that decision was finally taken.
Another thing that New Democrats have been calling on the government to do as part of a package of financial relief is to remove the GST on home heating, but we have not seen any commitment from your government on that, either in the House or in the fall economic statement or its accompanying legislation.
Could you explain to the committee why it seems your government is not open to the idea of providing GST relief on home heating?