Mr. Speaker, I recall a couple of weeks ago when a similar thing happen to me. The Chair at the time did not afford me the opportunity to speak, but I thought I would not do the same to my Liberal colleague.
Before we get farther down the road on the harmonization of the tax, several comments were made here earlier with regard to Bill C-71 and how that debate was cut off. The fact is my colleague from Macleod basically introduced a motion that the question be put. The intent was that we could be debating one motion and not have an introduction of numerous amendments. It was the Speaker's responsibility at that time to decide whether the debate was to be cut off and go to the question, not the responsibility of my hon. colleague.
The member for Haldimand-Norfolk, who has been complaining about not having representation here in the House because the Reform Party did something, should look toward the Chair for the guidance in future occasions. Far be it from any Liberal here in this House to complain that they have not had the opportunity to speak when, after all, they invoke closure in this House so many times one can hardly recall if it is the race between the Conservatives or the Liberals for cutting off debate in the House of Commons. I think the hon. member should look at that and consider where his own party stands on cutting off debate in this House.
With regard to the GST and the harmonization of the GST in the Atlantic provinces, having spent some time there this year the GST in many cases is really not a concern to many people because there is such an underground economy there, as there is in other places across this country. It is really a moot point at times.
In reading through the papers from Halifax in particular and reading editorials, I found some very realistic comments. I would like to give a few. Nova Scotia finance minister Bill Gillis had no business signing the deal of BST, the blended sales tax. The public
did not see the details and the MLAs did not debate it. Just like that, it was done overnight behind closed doors.
This is kind of typical. I know the folks in Nova Scotia want the Liberals out and the Conservatives out but they do not know who to bring in because the Conservatives and Liberals in that province have not really served them well, much like the Conservatives and Liberals federally in this country have not served Canadians all that well. If they had we would not have situations like an enormous debt of $600 million and trying to service that debt with $47 billion a year, crime that is not being addressed, the situation in the House of Commons where we feel democratic principles are really amiss and even to a large extent not here.
We have to look at the whole issue of taxation, why we are here, how we got here, who got us here and why all of a sudden we are talking about three provinces out of this whole federation which made a deal to blend or to harmonize the GST with the provincial sales taxes.
One has to only look at the type of governments those three provinces have. Surprisingly, if anyone can believe this, they are all Liberal governments. For those at home listening, from British Columbia and other provinces, I truly wonder what my home province would have been sitting on today had that province been Liberal. We should think about that because if that is the kind of provincial representation we get in this country, that we make a deal with the senior party of the Liberals, regardless of the cost to the people in that province, then something is terribly wrong in this land.
I would suggest that the harmonization of the GST is not the problem but a symptom of the problem. It is a deal made at the cost of the people in those provinces because there is an affiliation between the provincial Liberals and federal Liberals that is so strong that it overrides the good of the people. That is wrong.
So they are going to take a combined rate of 18.77 per cent and apply it on a different basis; now the 15 per cent overall tax. They say it is good because it has gone down three percentage points. However, what they did not bother to tell people is that they will be paying it on things that they have never paid it on before.
I know parts of my family in Nova Scotia and parts of my family in Newfoundland are waking up to the same realities. None have a lot of money but they have the same realities that many people in this land are waking up with. It is just another disgusting tax by a government that really does not care. It is cash starved and it is going to get it any way it can.
BST, blended sales tax, HST, harmonized sales tax, GST, PST, ST, S, whatever we want to call these things, the taxpayer is sick and tired and fed up. If there is one thing I can forecast in this country it is that the Liberal government will fall on its inability to understand that people are sick and tired of taxes for the sake of money going to the wrong places in this country.
The real effects of blending the provincial tax and the GST will put people in Atlantic Canada through the blender. That is the problem. They do not seem to understand. That is all right. We will make a change.
The Metropolitan Halifax Chamber of Commerce does not support this without changes.
It is interesting when members opposite say "it is supported, we talked to all kinds of people". I do not recall anybody in my family ever being asked about it. I know for a fact that the provincial government in Nova Scotia did not even debate it. That is kind of sad.
I think of issues like child poverty, which this government expounds on time after time without thinking that if we have child poverty, how did we get there. I will tell the House why we have child poverty in Canada today, poverty of any kind. We got there because of governments' inability to understand that the more they borrow, the more they owe. Over the last 25 years both the federal Conservatives and the federal Liberals have borrowed well beyond their means and ability to pay back. That is why we have poverty in this country.
That is why, rather than looking at cutting back on the GST, they are looking at irresponsible and ridiculous ways to hide it. They are not getting rid of it. Out of sight, out of mind; that is their idea. There is no courage to cut it back.
For all those listening, I sincerely hope they will remember that this is the government which started borrowing. This is the government which is trying to hide the GST. The other government, which is no longer a party, is the government that brought in the GST. Think about that when walking up to the ballot box.
It is time for a big change in this land. The Achilles' heel is here in the GST and in the government's inability to understand that more taxes will mean further debt and less ability to pay.