Mr. Speaker, it is a pleasure to speak to Bill C-70 and, in particular, some of the motions that are being moved with respect to Bill C-70.
I must say that although this is the new year, 1997, and my first speech here in the new year, it is unfortunately not very new legislation. Although there have been some amendments which had been discussed in the previous year, and although there has been a hue and cry from many corners of the country about this legislation, it remains substantially unchanged. Therefore it is quite unacceptable to the Reform Party.
I want to start by touching on some of the major objections that we have heard not only from people in Atlantic Canada but from national retailers who do business in Atlantic Canada. I do not know if members have been following the papers, but it is absolutely flabbergasting to me that the government still insists on pushing forward with many components of this bill even though there is a groundswell of opposition to it.
Probably the most obvious example of that is the tax in pricing component. During the finance committee hearings a couple of weeks ago here in Ottawa we had retailers from across the country come to Ottawa and say to the government repeatedly they do not have big concerns about harmonized sales tax with the single caveat that it should not include tax in pricing at this time. Some of them had other concerns and there were some minor objections that they raised with respect to other issues, but with almost with one voice they said they do not see any point in bringing in tax in pricing at this time when it is only going to happen in one part of the country. They raised a number of objections.
One of the objections they raised, which is so obvious, is that if we bring it in in one part of the country but not in the rest of the country then we do not have tax simplification, which is what the government said it was aiming for, but tax complication and confusion. Now we have different prices for the same goods on different sides of the border, depending on whether one is outside of Atlantic Canada or inside Atlantic Canada. When I say Atlantic Canada I should exclude Prince Edward Island because it did not become part of this deal. People obviously have big concerns about this. It is going to add all kinds of regulatory burden.
If it were only regulatory burden that would be bad enough, but business leader after business leader came before the finance committee and said that it was going to mean extra costs and extra costs can be reflected in several ways. It will mean higher prices for consumers. It will mean that people will have to be laid off or in some cases businesses will have to close.
I see the parliamentary secretary here. He was at the same meeting I was at where the representative from Carleton Cards said that they would close 19 stores if this legislation came in as it was because they had 19 stores that were marginal, stores that were either just barely making it or slightly unprofitable. They said that this legislation would mean that they would no longer be profitable and would have no prospect of becoming profitable and therefore would close.
Obviously in Atlantic Canada where the economy has been in a shambles for a number of years, this legislation is going to hurt those people and there is no reason for it. So far the government has been unable to come up with a single shred of evidence to explain why tax in pricing has to come in at this time in Atlantic Canada. There is not one piece of evidence.
At one point a poll was conducted which, by the way, it was suggested was worded so that somehow the people of Atlantic Canada wanted tax in pricing. When the poll was looked at closely, it was discovered very early on when people discovered that tax in pricing was going to mean extra costs for them, the support dropped. Actually only a minority of people in Atlantic Canada, even according to the Nova Scotia government poll, supported tax in pricing. That is a major concern.
It is going to cost jobs. Woolworth Canada has said it could close as many as 30 per cent of its 125 stores in Atlantic Canada. Another group has already closed a number of stores in New Brunswick specifically because of tax in pricing. Again, I do not understand why the government is going after the people of Atlantic Canada and hurting them with this legislation.
The next point I want to make is that for the life of me I cannot understand why, when I proposed a motion in the finance committee that the hearings be extended and moved to Atlantic Canada where people will be most affected by this legislation, the Liberal members voted against taking the hearings to Atlantic Canada. To me that is unbelievable. Here is legislation, probably the most important tax legislation to affect the people of Atlantic Canada in a generation, and they are not given a voice on what kinds of changes should be made or whether or not the legislation should even go ahead. It is certainly taxation without consultation, and I would argue it is taxation without representation.
I heard one Liberal member say: "In my riding of Atlantic Canada I personally put out some notices that said we would fly people from Atlantic Canada to come to the meeting". That is ridiculous. People in Atlantic Canada have a right to demand that their government come to them when it is proposing a taxation system that in some cases will have dramatic effects on their own personal economic well-being.
One of the effects of the harmonized sales tax is that people on fixed incomes in particular will be hard hit. Those people who are on fixed incomes and who perhaps are disabled should have a right to be in their own community, whether it is Truro, Nova Scotia, or St. John's, Newfoundland, or Saint John, New Brunswick, wherever it is they should have a right to call the government to account in their own community. They should not have to apply to see if the government will bring them to Ottawa and take a day or two away from their families. That is fundamentally wrong. It is contrary to democracy.
I do not want to try to anticipate what the government is going to do with respect to limiting debate on this legislation. If on the one hand the government does not let people in Atlantic Canada have hearings on this legislation, and on the other hand the government tells Canadians it is not going to let the opposition point to the flaws in the legislation and introduces time allocation, then people will have every right to be as cynical as they are today about the lack of democracy in this country.
When we go door to door, people say that we have an elected dictatorship. If I have heard it once, I have heard it a thousand times. The government has a chance to prove that is not the case, to a small degree this time, if it says it will not introduce time allocation. I will not go on about that any longer.
I do want to touch on the issue of GST on books. I see a Liberal colleague across the way who has spoken out on the GST on reading materials. The government had a prime opportunity this time around to introduce new legislation that would fulfil a red book promise, a promise to the Don't Tax Reading Coalition, a promise that was made in two successive Liberal policy conventions that they would scrap the GST on reading materials.
Instead, the GST will now be doubled on reading materials in Atlantic Canada. No matter how we look at it, that is not fulfilling the promise. In fact, it is mocking the people to whom the Liberals made the promise before, that they would get rid of the GST. There is just no other way to put it.
Mr. Speaker, I know my time is running short. I will simply conclude by saying that this legislation is wrong and that these amendments do not fix the bill. I encourage all members in this House and especially members from Atlantic Canada to scold the government by not voting for it.