Mr. Speaker, I want to thank the hon. member for Saint-Hyacinthe-Bagot for his comments. I would also like to stress the excellent spirit of co-operation we had here in the Bloc Quebecois when we were working on this question and also with a number of members on the committee who belong to the Liberal Party and who disagree with their party's position but cannot do so openly because of the party line system, because they are gagged. I am also aware that my Reform Party colleagues co-operated splendidly during the entire process, and I want to thank them for doing so.
Where my colleague referred to complex systems, he drew comparisons with the situation at the international level. In fact, there is not a single country in the world that has this kind of hybrid tax, with one system for one kind of business and another system for another business. I attended all the hearings and many meetings and I travelled all through the provinces, but not a single person suggested alternatives.
Why bother holding public hearings that cost a fortune and waste a lot of taxpayers' money, if in the end, we do not listen to what is said. After only a few days, the committee was doing such a poor job that the Prime Minister had to tell officials at the Department of Finance who had spent a lot of time on the report that it was going to be put on the backburner. That is the kind of thing that is so discouraging to the public and makes people so sceptical. I am sure that the way the Liberals handled this question will not do them any good.