Mr. Speaker, I am grateful for this opportunity to speak to Bill C-70. I salute the parliamentary secretary, the hon. member for St. Paul's. I know he is a gentleman and a scholar. I had the opportunity to discuss a variety of topics with him, and I know he is a humanist with all that entails.
I must admit I cannot understand why he supports, why he goes along with a bill which, after all, deals a harsh blow to our culture by maintaining the GST on books. It is a harsh blow to culture in Quebec but also to culture in English Canada.
I may remind the parliamentary secretary, the hon. member for St. Paul's, that his riding is an important centre of intellectual life. Will he be able to show his face in his riding this weekend? I fear for his safety. Will he be able to visit the upstanding citizens in his riding with a proposal like the one he has just tabled?
I think we have to go back to the basics. We believe that for all kinds of reasons which are typical of our time, of our era, until a few years ago, literature was appreciated both as a discipline and as a source of knowledge. The printed word was a part of our lives. The hon. member for Anjou-Rivière-des-Prairies is well aware that this goes back to Gutenberg and that there are whole generations for whom the printed word was a part of learning and of the way we acquired knowledge.
Times have changed. We all know that as far as learning and the transfer of knowledge are concerned, the electronic media have become a major factor. We are sure that if we did a little survey of all the pages here in the House, we would find that each and everyone of them has a computer and is familiar with the Internet. But they do not necessarily invest as much time in a more conventional activity: reading.
We believe books should be exempted from the GST or its new form, the harmonized sales tax, because it would be a way to support book sellers and encourage the spread of knowledge by a medium that is somewhat more conventional but still has its place and which we all know is still a very important factor in establishing the identity of a community, and I am referring to literature, what people write about us, and what is written elsewhere.
It is surprising to find such a provision in Bill C-70, because, on a number of occasions, here as elsewhere, the Liberal members, the members of the government, took a totally opposite stance. It is more than just a simple paradox.
When analysts, observers, journalists and even historians write history and look at what the present legislature produced, one thing will stand out: the fact that the government opted on a number of occasions for a strategy of camouflage, half-truths and about-faces in matters of importance.
We know how much the GST is a sore point with the government. First because of the Minister of Canadian Heritage. There are a number of terms to describe the personality of the Minister of Canadian Heritage. She is indeed a woman capable at times of kindness, but she is also capable of a ruse that was at the limit of honesty in connection with her government's promises.
I see my colleague, the member for Pontiac-Gatineau-Labelle, nodding in agreement. There is a lack of insight on the government benches.
It would have been interesting had the government used Bill C-70 to really dust off its honesty and ensure that its actions are more in line with the red book and its election promises.
I am sure all the members of this House realize that words like literature, knowledge, heritage, the value of the printed word, though abstract, refer to basic values. How can government members go for this kind of a bill?
If we were admitted into your private life, Mr. Speaker, I know we would find out that you have an impressive collection of books and that you have always been a man who believes in knowledge.
Why not adopt measures that will act as incentives toward acquiring knowledge instead of restrictive measures? Could someone explain that to us before the end of the day? Government members are awfully quiet today. It would be interesting to hear what one of them has to say. Perhaps the Minister of Transport will do the honours.
Perhaps the Minister of Transport will stand up and, on behalf of British Columbia as a whole, tell us why this government has chosen to slap down whole segments of the cultural industry? In the name of what rationale will educational institutions alone be exempt, I would like to know. I said educational institutions, but the bill actually talks about literacy.
The Minister of Transport is a man in his early fifties. He probably studied the great classics of our time in school. Would he have read them if, in those days, the constraints that make our taxation system unfair today had existed? We should take advantage of the presence of the transport minister, who is said to be among the moderates in cabinet and a man of sound judgement.
It would be interesting, and I will close on that, if the Minister of Transport stood up and, based on his experience as a man in his fifties, told us why it has been decided to use a bill like this one to deliberately limit exemptions applying to books to those bought by educational institutions and other organizations involved in literacy programs.
Is this not something of an insult to the intelligence of consumers? Does the Minister of Transport not realize that I for one-and the hon. whip can bear witness to the fact that my workload is on the heavy side, but I am not complaining-read at least one book every week? This makes me a seasoned consumer. I buy many books. Granted, not all of them are new.
Does the minister not recognize that this is a discriminatory factor, that it is a bias, that it goes against the principles governing the transmission of knowledge to not allow consumers to buy new and used books without having to pay the sales tax?
Does the minister not recognize that the Bloc Quebecois' proposal is extremely reasonable? Sure, you will tell me: "Yes, but we did not have enough time to discuss it". You are right because, once again, government members opted for a process which I find barbaric, if I can use that term. Indeed, we learned from our finance critic that 113 amendments had been tabled and that the Standing Committee on Finance only had three days to look at them.
This is a very harmful practice in a system where members are asked to do a good job and to make a thorough analysis of the wording of a bill.
My rather hope that cabinet and the government will review the bill and agree with the very reasonable arguments put forward by the official opposition. I believe a great cultural complicity is possible between the opposition and the government, if only some common sense were displayed in this House.