Mr. Speaker, I told you the member did not make any sense, he has just proven me right.
What I said is that under complete, total and general harmonization, all aspects of the issue taken into account, when the GST is blended with the provincial sales tax, at the end of the day large businesses paying a blended sales tax on the inputs they buy are entitled to a refund. They are entitled to an input tax credit.
The maritime provinces have been able to do it since April 1st because the federal government gave them $961 million for that. In Quebec, we went ahead with harmonization, without any federal support. But we cannot do it, we cannot afford to do it because the federal government has been and continues to be unfair with Quebec.
Harmonizing both taxes is a good thing. We believe it is. We support efficiency, and the federal government knows it. But it wants to draw a red herring across the trail.
If it was being fair with Quebec, we could refund large businesses the $500 million they pay in taxes on inputs, but we cannot do it because of the government lack of fairness in its dealings with Quebec. As a result, we are less competitive than we should normally be if the system was slightly more equitable with Quebec businesses. We are competing in particular with New Brunswick businesses which enjoy a $400 million rebate linked to the billion dollar in compensation the federal government is giving three maritime provinces.
You talked about Frank McKenna and rightly so. He is still premier. I have even harsher words for him. Frank McKenna tried to steal our own businesses. He even went to Asia to try to attract Quebec businesses saying “Come to New Brunswick. You will enjoy a $400 million tax rebate”. This is what the federal government calls a fair system. Wait a minute.