Mr. Speaker, the government's undertaking in terms of the GST is to obviously have a system that is fairer to consumers and which is easier to administer.
The government has stated that following the desires of Canadians it is our wish to harmonize and to have a single tax, a single base. We are in the course of discussing this with the provinces. Undoubtedly it will come up at the meeting of the federal-provincial finance ministers next week.
I would have been prepared to have discussed it in the fiscal statement. The purpose of the fiscal statement was to give an economic update on the state of the economy since the last budget which is why I did not deal with it and I was not questioned on the matter.