Madam Speaker, we are speaking about a part of the Bloc Quebecois motion, which says:
That this House condemn the government for blatant unfairness to Quebec in the matter of the GST—
First of all, let us talk about the position of the Bloc Quebecois. In its electoral platform, the Bloc said that Quebec, which chose a phased-in harmonization starting in 1991, has not received the same compensation as the three maritime provinces, since Ottawa offered them $961 million as of April 1, 1997.
As far as the GST is concerned, the Bloc Quebecois considered that the transfer of all federal fields of taxation would create some interesting prospects for Quebec. Also, the bloc proposed a series of tax measures in the context of a sovereign Quebec. For example “A sovereign Quebec will have the power to abolish the GST and replace it with a tax on commercial operations better adapted to free trade”. This quotation is from the householder published by Roger Pomerleau, the member for Anjou—Rivière-des-Prairies.