Mr. Speaker, I wish to make a very short comment.
I guess the hon. member opposite does not much like the report. That is a shame because he spent tremendous time and enormous effort listening to Canadians across the country express their views about the current GST and recommend alternatives.
All of those views are expressed in the report and reflected. It is a shame that the hon. member and the loyal opposition did not have the courage to present alternatives in a written form. At least the Reform members had the courage to express in writing what they agreed with and what they did not agree with.
While the Bloc agreed to the mandate to look at alternatives to the current GST and supported that mandate of the committee
and put in all the work, at the end of the day what does it do? It says: "Well, it is not good enough. Why not give it to the provinces and let us have a provincial tax grab?"
There has been a complete flip flop. During the election campaign the Bloc members liked the GST. Now they do not like the GST and they want more provincial taxes. Indeed, they have engaged in what I would express as the big lie, that the report recommends a tax on food and pharmaceuticals. There is no such recommendation on any one of the over 100 pages in the report, no such recommendation at all.
I make them an offer that one of our colleagues south of the border once made to the Republican Party: "If they will stop telling lies about us we will stop telling the truth about them".