Mr. Speaker, this is a simple message, and even the fisheries minister's blowhard rhetoric and double talk cannot stifle it. Fishermen across Atlantic Canada are protesting the government's broken promise of "no tax increases".
From St. John's to Saint John, from Glace Bay to Yarmouth, the cry "Axe the fish tax" is being heard. And since that cry is falling on deaf ears, Reform, along with local citizens, have unveiled a billboard in Yarmouth protesting this unfair tax, one of many billboards in Atlantic Canada that will remind thousands and thousands of passers-by that the so-called fee is in fact a tax. This
tax will rob Yarmouth of $3 million, southwest Nova Scotia of $18 million, and rob Atlantic Canada of $50 million.
There is no excuse for broken promises. There is no excuse for a new tax. There is no excuse the government can offer fishermen whose pockets are being picked.
Leave the money at home. Mr. Minister, axe the Tobin tax.