Okay. This is not what I'm hearing from the businesses I represent, so I'll take that message back to them and tell you what they say.
The GST was never meant to be charged on essentials. It's why many essentials were exempted when it was first brought in, in the early 1990s. What's the argument against making a tax cut on essentials permanent? This is what we've proposed: take the tax off things that are clearly essential items, like home heating, phone and Internet bills, and kids' clothing.
Canadians, I think you'll agree, deserve much more than a two-month holiday from the tax on those items. Why not make the GST cut permanent?