Madam Speaker, I heard the hon. member say in her speech that jobs had not been created.
It always amazes me when opposition members talk that way. All they have to do is get a copy of a report by Statistics Canada and they can see that well over 500,000 new jobs have been created since the last election. In fact, for the last quarter, just about every month there has been new job creation in Canada.
Second, long ago the province of Quebec harmonized with the GST. I will tell the House why this is a good thing for Quebec and Canada and how governments should co-operate and work together. Manufacturers in the province of Quebec have the ability not to include retail sales taxes in the sale of manufactured goods for export. Quebec was clever enough to notice the advantages of harmonizing the GST.
Unfortunately my province of Ontario does not see that. Where I live General Motors is a major manufacturer. The manufacture of automobiles in Ontario includes a certain element of retail sales tax. That gives Quebec a tactical advantage over Ontario in the export of automobiles to the North American market.
I would like to suggest to the member that rather than attacking some of the advantages of harmonization, she should be applauding the government for its foresight in trying to apply the harmonization method that has been used in Quebec across the rest of this country.
Finally, I would like to suggest that if she contacts Statistics Canada it will tell her the net new job growth on a month to month basis. She will see that we have been very successful in creating new jobs in Canada.