At least this party does not go along like a herd of sheep and follow the democratic dictatorship that we have elected. When the backbenchers of this Liberal government go back and face their constituents they will have to answer why they are bringing in more taxes, new taxes in a region that is subsidized by the rest of Canada after the finance minister calls it pan-Canadian. We will see how pan-Canadian it is after this is fleshed is out in about 10 or 12 months after this tax has been in place.
Companies will have to develop dual inventory. They will have to have two pricing systems, computer and advertising systems in order to accommodate this change. It will be confusing and it will be costly. It is a shame that a government cannot look at a plan and implement it all across Canada rather than just doing it piecemeal in one part of the country only.
In addition to the direct costs there is the cost of lost jobs. A card company and Woolworth, as my colleague has previously mentioned, will be forced to lay off hundreds of people with this increase in costs or pass it on to consumers. That is what we have been arguing all along.
It makes no matter if someone can deduct this as input costs. It is a 15 per cent deduction. Come and create the jobs. What matters is whether this benefits the Canadian taxpayer, the Canadian consumer. The answer is unequivocally no. Take a look at what is being done here.
A tax is being increased on a lot of goods and services in these provinces. Yes, the overall combined tax is lower in those provinces, but Canadians have to pay $974 million to do that. It is a prepayment to get a tax reduction in one part of the country at the expense of the other part of the country. Then what happens to the people in that part of the country?
Are they going to be better off at the end of the day? I submit no, because when they buy their goods and services they will be paying 15 per cent on a lot of goods and services they were not paying on before. Their out of pocket costs will go up and when those consumers find out, the premiers, the politicians in those provinces are going to be in deep goo-goo, sticking to the g alliteration.
The final word I have to say is cover-up. Hiding the HST and BST will allow Ottawa to cover-up future rate hikes. That is the danger in this legislation. Other countries have combined a value added tax with a local sales tax to have just one tax. Governments then go on and raise it from 5 per cent to 10, from 10 to 15, from 15 to 18. It just gets easier and easier to raise the tax.
This Liberal government, should it be so lucky to enforce a harmonized sales tax all across Canada, will then be in a position to raise this tax forever.
This cover-up is nothing more than trying to keep a promise that it never intended to keep in the first place. Those members said they would scrap the GST, abolish the GST, and now they have done the very thing that they argued against in this House of Commons when they were in opposition.
This is not about money. This is not about creating jobs. This is about integrity and honesty in politics. I am embarrassed to have to say the politicians on that side, now in government, especially the cabinet ministers, are now saying things opposite to what they did over here.
When the minister of defence was on this side he said the GST should not be tax included, that tax should always be obvious and clear. Now he is favouring a hidden tax.
When the finance minister was on this side he said if you combine a provincial sales tax with a goods and services tax, you will entrench the GST forever. For a party and two people who ran on the platform to scrap, abolish and get rid of the GST, to entrench it in our lives forever, to guarantee that it stays with us forever, is hypocritical, duplicitous and is not serving the general public.
They should be ashamed of changing their minds and doing exactly the opposite once they get over on the other side. This piecemeal, ad hoc legislation is not good for Canada. It is not the solution. If we are going to do something and we want to have one tax, then let us just have one tax but have it as low as possible, have it all across Canada and not force companies, businesses and consumers to listen to this confusion all the time.
We oppose this legislation because it is being done for the wrong reasons. It is being done just to keep a promise that has been long broken and should be buried. The minister of heritage quit over this. She admitted that the promise was broken. The finance minister admitted the Liberals broke their GST promise. It is only the Prime Minister who will not admit he broke his promise to abolish the GST.
For political and not economic reasons the Liberal Party should reconsider this bill. It should look at it and say: "We should not go ahead. Tax inclusive pricing is divisive, there is a lot confusion. Let's back off on this. Let's wait and see if we can convince all the other provinces to come on board".
I will leave the government and the Liberal backbenchers with this thought. Answer this question: If the HST is so good, why have the other provinces not jumped on board and proclaimed the wonderful advantages and benefits of this ridiculous Bill C-70?