Mr. Speaker, a few hours after it was tabled, the report of the Liberal members on the finance committee was resoundingly rejected by several provinces, including Ontario and Manitoba.
The Prime Minister and the Minister of Finance both quickly distanced themselves from this proposal to implement a hidden GST that would integrate the provincial sales taxes. In other words, the Liberal report has already been shelved.
Now that the government has returned to square one by disowning the Liberal members' report in that way, can the Minister of Finance tell us what alternative to the GST he intends to submit to the federal-provincial conference of finance ministers scheduled for next week?