Madam Speaker, I listened intently to the member for Kamloops as I always do. I suppose that if, when my government showed up at this House in 1993 there had been no GST, things would have been a lot different. The reality is that it had been implemented.
The member talked about being on the finance committee. I did that trip. Only we were talking about a harmonized tax at the time. The small and medium sized business people said resoundingly “Harmonize the tax. We are dealing with two administrations here. It is ridiculous. The bureaucratic overlap and duplication for small businesses is inefficient”. It was that initiative, to make a dynamic economy, to get more money in the hands of Atlantic Canadians which we strove for.
Having said that, it is not just Canada. It is Australia. It is the European Union. It is New Zealand. All these countries have moved toward a consumption tax.
I agree with the member when he says it is a retrogressive tax in the sense that it affects all income groups the same. What I cannot understand is the member's acceptance of having said that and at the same time arguing for a reduction in the rate because if it is retrogressive on the upscale, it is retrogressive on the downscale. When those reductions are given, they are being given to the wealthy just as they are being given to the poor. Why would the NDP members not argue for a more targeted tax cut? Why do they want to reduce a retrogressive tax?