Thank you for your remarks, Mr. Rochon.
I'm going to outline the current situation, since I've had time to analyze matters.
From May 2019 to May 2020, e-commerce roughly doubled, increasing 110.8%. Then, from February to May 2020, retail sales fell nearly 20%. So the situation's clear: e-commerce revenues are rising, we aren't taxing enough, and we're losing revenue on retail sales. The logical course would be to apply what we already have.
Ms. Hogan, the Quebec government has assessed its QST losses from the non-taxation of e-commerce. In 2017, it estimated those losses at $270 million, compared to the federal government, which estimated its losses at $169 million for the same period.
Let's make a quick calculation. The GST rate is 5%, about half that of the QST, which is nearly 10%. This means that GST losses on Quebec sales were approximately $135 million, given that Quebec's population is roughly 23% of Canada's.
Are your estimates conservative, given that those of the Quebec government show that far more revenue appears to have been lost as a result of the non-taxation of e-commerce?