Mr. Speaker, I would like to thank the member for Halifax for her intervention on this issue. I am glad to hear somebody from Nova Scotia get up and talk about it and defend it, defend it to the degree and with the passion that she has.
Let me clarify a few things she said in her comments. In no way during my speech was I trying to lecture to Nova Scotians and to tell them what was right for them or what was better for them. In no way was I giving a lecture. I was criticizing the method with which this government is implementing a harmonized sales tax. I was criticizing the government in its implementation.
It is not a question of knowing better. I am not saying I know any better. I am here to give some suggestions and some ideas and that is all I have been trying to do. Doing what is right is important. In the Standing Committee on Finance when we looked at replacements for the GST there were a lot of alternatives looked at. The Liberal government had a lot of options and a lot of choices. It hung its hat on replacing the GST with a harmonized sales tax but it did it piecemeal. It is doing it ad hoc. It is doing it at a high cost.
Let me point out to the hon. member where the high cost is. First of all, to reduce the combined current rate in those three provinces of 19 per cent down to 15 per cent. Obviously it is a loss of revenue to them. Call it a transfer payment. Let us not get into partisan politics for a minute. Let us call it a transition cost from one regime to another of $1 billion. That is $1 billion of expense that need not happen if they would have taken the full report and looked at the Reform recommendations in the minority report.
Reform said it would not solve the problems because this is just entrenching the GST. The Liberal Party wants to replace the GST. In other words, get a system of taxation that is revenue neutral that is not this confusing, complicated, bureaucratic, red tape system of taxation.
Reform said if it were going to do it and look at it, look at an integrated system with those provinces that have provincial sales tax. Given that it wanted to look at it, here are some recommendations Reform has. Make it integrated. Make it the broadest possible base, the widest base. Let us tax everything, groceries, prescription drugs. Tax everything. That way there would be the lowest rate and we would not have this billion dollar cost to make up for lost revenues in certain provinces.
Second, for those low income people who are affected, we currently have a system of rebate and this national integrated sales tax could then adjust to the fact that certain people who are the lower income level would get a bigger rebate than they currently get and we have taken care of those in society we have an obligation to take care of.
These were legitimate recommendations. The reason I am so vehemently opposed to the current botched up mess the government has is that it is not doing it right. It is being done wrong. It is not getting all the provinces to agree. The Liberals quote Mike Harris of Ontario. Mike Harris would love to co-operate if everybody else across the country were coming into the deal at the same time, on a level playing field. Okay, so we would have to compensate, but the finance minister did not do that.
I just want to clarify for the member for Halifax and give her enough time to respond that it was never my intention to lecture. It was never my intention to stand here and say that I know better. If the Liberals would just read that full minority report, we did make some recommendations which the government has not listened to. It is being done piecemeal and that is not right. Let us do it right.