Mr. Speaker, it seems that our friends over there are not interested in reducing the underground economy. They are not interested in efficiency. They are also not interested in being quiet.
The Atlantic Provinces Economic Council has given a clear indication of how favourable this harmonized sales tax would be. Another quote comes from the Deveau family which owns Acadian Seaplants in Dartmouth. It landed an order from Thailand recently during the Team Canada sales mission. It told the law amendments committee hearing on the BST that its competitors already have a full refundable tax system for business: "What the harmonized sales tax does for us is to level the playing field when we compete with the Europeans, who already have the advantages of a value added tax system. The harmonized sales tax means we have lower costs and that means we can have lower prices, win more contracts and hire more people". That is a quote from the material provided by the Nova Scotia department of finance. It is obvious that the harmonized sales tax will be a strong plus for business in the Atlantic provinces. The Reform Party does not have any members in the Atlantic provinces so it cannot be very interested in business in the Atlantic provinces.
This government is to be commended for putting the harmonized sales tax forward. It will have many advantages for business in Atlantic Canada. It will return the structure of the sales tax system to a proper order so that business in the Atlantic provinces will have a serious advantage in selling their products, not just locally and nationally, but internationally as well. The consumers will also have a serious advantage. They will know the price of the goods they are buying. It will be on the item. That will be what they will pay at the cash register.