Mr. Speaker, the commitments we made in the red book remain our commitments as a government. We asked a committee of the House of Commons with representatives from the three parties to try to come up with a unanimous proposal for us and they could not agree. The Liberal members on the committee considered four or five different proposals for us; they chose one which is not at all binding on the government. But I would like to thank all members who worked on that committee because their work will help us see the issue a little more clearly.
In any case, I repeat that our commitment remains clear, and I would like to let the Leader of the Opposition know that on April 10, 1990, he voted for the GST and when he resigned on May 22 that year, he assured everyone in the Conservative Party that he would continue to defend the policies which he had the privilege to work on with them.
We received the committee report, but we say that the GST must be replaced by another tax, and we clearly showed in the red book the conditions which must be met to satisfy us.