Mr. Speaker, the hon. member for Rosedale is most eloquent, but it would be even better if what he said made sense.
What he did say positively made my hair stand on end. When he said that the new tax system-I see you are smiling because of my hair, and I realize it is somewhat sparse-when he said that companies in the maritimes would benefit under a system that would increase their efficiency and performance and reduce their production costs, he is on another planet. We are certainly not. We had three days of hearings before the finance committee in January, and while the hon. member for Rosedale was probably on the ski slopes, we were working.
We heard testimony from representatives of large Canadian corporations, average Canadian companies and small retailers. They came to see us, and they said: "You must postpone implementation of this bill; you must postpone the implementation of this harmonized sales tax system because it will create considerable problems and the cost will be exorbitant: implementation costs, $100 million; recurrent annual administrative costs, $90 million, to be absorbed by maritime businesses".
What the government told us was nonsense. There will be no improvement. At the present time in the maritimes it is total chaos. So much so that the Liberal government no longer knows what to do with this hot potato. It thought that by sweetening the deal for the three provincial governments of the maritimes, by giving them $1 billion, a $1 billion gift, there would no longer be a problem. But that is not the case.
As far as Quebec and harmonization are concerned, if the government thinks so highly of the kind of harmonization we achieved in Quebec in 1991, it should pay us. If it works, we should be paid for it. We should get exactly the same treatment the government gave the maritimes. One billion for this agreement.
I have a question for the hon. member. Considering the message he heard God knows where and what is really happening down here, which is total chaos, and that representatives of businesses in the maritimes are putting pressure on the government to refrain from implementing the system, why is the hon. member on the government benches unaware of the utter confusion caused by our charming Minister of Finance with Bill C-70? Why does what he says not reflect real situation?