Mr. Speaker, I am pleased to rise today to voice my opposition to Bill C-70. It is a thinly veiled attempt by the government to fulfil a red book promise to eliminate or redefine the GST.
I never fail to be amazed at the attitude of the government which has changed from such a short time ago when it was in opposition. I clearly remember the debate which went on in this place and in the other place when the former Conservative government brought in the GST. I remember the debate which went on in the other place for hours and hours, day and night, and the Liberal outrage over the proposed GST. The debate caused emotions which at times almost led to physical violence. All sorts of strange manoeuvres were employed to filibuster the bill, yet a couple of years later the Liberals who now form the government have completely flip flopped and seem to be defending this very unpopular and unfair tax in the interests of all Canadians.
When we read some of the debates from the last Parliament we see the Liberal comments which were voiced every time the Conservatives invoked closure on a bill. The Liberals howled and shouted their outrage. Now they are on the other side and they invoke closure on a regular basis. It is almost a daily order of business. There is a lot of hypocrisy in that kind of action.
The imposition of the GST had a lot to do with what happened to the Conservative Party in the last election. It will probably have somewhat the same effect on the Liberal members from Atlantic Canada in the next election if they do not start speaking up and representing the views of their constituents on the harmonized version of the GST. It has all the same problems and faults which the original GST had when it was imposed on Canadians, except
those problems and faults are now magnified. Instead of a 7 per cent tax we are looking at a 15 per cent tax.
The whole concept was sold to Atlantic Canadians on a bill of goods which said they would be better off, that the provincial tax would be lower and that it was the best thing since sliced bread. Atlantic Canadians are quickly coming to realize that the picture is not quite as rosy as the one they were sold.
The provincial sales tax was a tax on goods. Now it has become a tax on goods and services. On top of the billion dollar incentive which was given to the Atlantic provinces by the rest of the Canadian taxpayers to induce them to enter this agreement, the base of the tax will be hugely expanded compared to what was covered by the provincial tax. It has become quite evident to Atlantic Canadians that their cost of taxation will be substantially higher than it was with the two tax system.
On top of that, there is the fundamental dishonesty about trying to bury the GST in the price of the goods so that every time an Atlantic Canadian buys a good or a service they will not be reminded of the hated GST. That it is hidden in the price does not seem to be a very upfront and honest way of trying to make this whole controversy go away and make Canadians forget the most hated tax in Canadian history.
On top of that, a number of well known organizations have exposed the cost of this harmonized tax to Atlantic Canadians. It is certainly going to kill jobs in a major way. It is going to put expansion plans of a number of fairly major retail chains on hold. It will not only cost in investments but it will also cost jobs for Atlantic Canadians.
Of course we can go back to the whole issue that has been plaguing this House for the last three and a half years, which is the difference in what the Prime Minister and other Liberals promised during the campaign and what they have delivered since the election. The recent town hall meeting brought to light very clearly the difference between the two. The expulsion of the member for York South-Weston has certainly exposed the fraud in this whole issue.
There is no doubt that the promise to eliminate the GST after the election, because it has been such a very unpopular tax with Canadians since its implementation, had a very major impact on the number of seats the Liberal Party gained in the last election. Doing a flip-flop and turning its back on that promise will have a major impact on the next election. I do not even think this attempt to harmonize the tax will cover the failure to fulfil that promise by this government.
We in the west and even those in Ontario, the largest province in Canada, have shown little interest in joining in this effort to harmonize the tax for the same reasons that now, after the faults have been exposed, Atlantic Canadians are rejecting it. In Alberta where we have no provincial sales tax, the implication of a blended tax is of little interest to Albertans and would do nothing but cost a substantial amount of money.
Alberta, Ontario and British Columbia are the three provinces that are not even willing to talk about the proposal. It appears that even the provinces of Saskatchewan, Manitoba and Prince Edward Island are quickly backing away from having any input into the whole proposal. It is simply no better than the GST which Canadians have been rejecting for so long.
It is understandable why the provincial governments of some of the Atlantic provinces did fall into the trap set by the federal government to get them into this scheme. It was simply because of the billion dollars which was put up by all Canadians through their tax dollars to bribe them into becoming part of the scheme. There is also the very complicated issue of tax credits where one tax is applied on top of another tax and the province receives a rebate in those instances. One can see how it could be appealing to a provincial government if in fact it is looking after its interests instead of the interests of the people it represents, the people of the Atlantic provinces.
While it might have more appeal to the governments in the Atlantic provinces, certainly for the same reasons as for all other Canadians it has little appeal to Atlantic Canadians. That is probably one of the reasons the Liberal government refused to hold public hearings on this issue in Atlantic Canada.
Certainly, considering the implications of this bill and the tax the government is proposing, it would only be natural that the committee would have travelled to Atlantic Canada to hold public hearings and hear the opinions of all Atlantic Canadians but that just was not to be. I find it quite curious that this government would not have been willing to go there to hear the opinion of those most affected.
We oppose the GST in its entirety and we oppose this bill to harmonize the GST, but to somehow neutralize at least some of the problems with it we introduced a number of amendments. It will be realized that with the imposition of closure on the bill the Liberal government is not interested in hearing any amendments to improve the bill any more than it is interested in hearing any more debate on the bill.