Madam Speaker, my colleagues will indicate exactly what Canada has given to the province of Quebec. That being said, the hon. member opposite is wrong because what we have done under the harmonization scheme with those three Atlantic provinces was very simple: the sales tax levels in these three provinces, among the poorest in Canada, were at 19%, almost 20%. As part of our harmonization scheme, we found that it would be necessary to bring this level down to something much more reasonable. That is why we established a 15% tax rate, reasonable under the circumstances. That is why there resulted a loss of revenue.
In the House of Commons on November 6th, 1997. See this statement in context.