Mr. Speaker, the federal government, through its GST harmonization program, temporarily left $170 million in the pockets of New Brunswick taxpayers, a tax reduction.
Two weeks later the Liberal premier of New Brunswick announced that he was working on a new business tax to get that $170 million into provincial coffers, a case of one level of government taking away a tax reduction granted by another, precisely the thing that the finance minister had said the federal and provincial governments agreed not to do.
Given the fact that his verbal agreement with the provinces is obviously being disregarded, will he commit to reaching a written federal-provincial tax relief agreement with the provinces?