Madam Speaker, I would like to verify something with my distinguished colleague, who sat on the finance committee.
There are two points that disturb me in Bill C-31 regarding the harmonization of the GST with provincial sales taxes in the three famous provinces with which the finance minister has cooked up an agreement. The first one is the 15 per cent rate. Does the hon. member feel that the finance minister woke up one morning and said to his wife: "All right, it will be 15 per cent"?
At the present time, two provinces are paying almost 19 per cent altogether in GST and PST, and Newfoundland is paying almost 20 per cent. People of these provinces are already paying these rates. Our good finance minister probably woke up one morning and said: "It will be 15 per cent". To make the medicine easier to take, he added: "I will give you $1 billion over four years and in cash, immediately. That will help you pay for kleenex to forget the money not collected, 4 or 5 per cent, as the case may be". I would like the hon. member to give me his views on that, since he sat on the finance committee. Why 15 and not 16 or 12 per cent?
Second, when that party was sitting here on the so-called official opposition benches, it fought against a hidden GST and convinced Mr. Mulroney not to hide it in 1990. At the time, you said it would be increased, just as you are increasing taxes on gasoline, tobacco and alcohol.
Today, you are hiding it. Of course, you will tell me: "We will have the sales slip". Who looks at the sales slip? You? No, I do not think so. I, for one, never check it. What counts is how much I pay and how much change I get back.