Mr. Speaker, the member refers to the GST as another tax. He well knows that the GST was a replacement of an existing tax, the manufacturers' sales tax, the FST. The FST generated some $18 billion of revenue in its last year of operation. When the GST came in, it generated only $16 billion.
Although the basis on which the tax was changed, the amount of revenue collected by the federal government actually went down in the first year of operation of the GST. It was a replacement.
I will still continue to support the premise that one of the reasons why Canadians did not like this tax is because they could see it on each and every purchase every time they made one. It was different from the shelf pricing. I think this is one, but not the only one, of the components. I remind the member that the GST was a replacement tax, not another tax.