The Liberals had promised to get rid of the GST. In my province, instead of getting rid of the GST, we ended up with a tax that makes no sense. We have low income families who now must pay 15% on diapers, 15% on electricity, and those people are not getting any compensation as was mentioned a few moments ago. We must look at how much these people are paying and how little they are getting in the end.
While a mother is paying 15% more for diapers, the person who has money and who wants to buy a $45,000 car is paying less. This is not my idea of justice. To me, this is just another tax on the poor, and the rich are paying less once again. That is the Liberal way. It is clear.
This morning, I was in the human resources development committee, and even senior officials in the department were saying that Atlantic Canada was affected the most by unemployment insurance reform, by the fact that no jobs are being created in our region. And we are hit by this tax on top of all that. We are the provinces who pay the most for a stamp in this country. In the regions, where there are no jobs, there are no longer any programs to help people. There are Liberals in this House who are really proud of what they are doing. I think they should be ashamed of themselves.
We have to look at what the tax really brings. There are people who have no more money to buy things and this affects our merchants. Our small and medium size businesses are really affected by the BST—and we have a good definition for this BST where I come from.