Mr. Speaker, everyone, including his Liberal colleagues, will have seen that the minister is in no rush to comment on his own remarks to the effect that the GST will indeed remain in place.
Will the Minister of Finance confirm that the $1 billion or nearly that in compensation paid to the Maritime provinces to encourage them to go along with his system will mean that the rest of Canada will be paying about $1 billion of their taxes in compensation to the Maritimes for a sales tax they will no longer be paying because the provinces agreed to the minister's deal?