Madam Speaker, I begin by congratulating the Reform Party for initiating the debate on comprehensive tax reform. I also humbly correct the member because he made a statement that the government had failed to address this problem.
I would like to clear the record because we have started the process of addressing this problem. We started it in the finance committee. Just yesterday the Prime Minister reiterated our election commitment that the GST was going to be killed. I think that is what he said. It is important for Canadians to know this. They cannot think, because we campaigned for three years for tax reform, that we came here and did not begin the process. We have not solved it yet but we have started.
I remind the member that I had the privilege of appearing before the committee last week on the single tax which many of us on this side of the House have been working on for the past few years. It is a very difficult and complex issue. The member announced that.
I have a question for the member. When a single tax is designed, or a proportional tax, one basic principle is flushing out all corporate loopholes, all tax preferences. Some would call them grants. Will the Reform Party be consistent on that and agree, as those of us who support single tax agree, that when we flush out all those preferences we will flush out all preferences that pertain to the energy sector in the province of Alberta?