Mr. Speaker, in a nutshell, there is no justification for paying huge amounts to three Atlantic provinces to harmonize their taxes. All taxpayers in Canada and Quebec will have to foot the bill, at a time when this government is telling us that the deficit must be tackled. It seems unreasonable to me to grant this $1 billion subsidy to the three Atlantic provinces.
In the House of Commons on February 11th, 1997. See this statement in context.