Mr. Speaker, I wish to address Group No. 1, which concerns the GST on books and which is made up of Motions Nos. 1 and 2.
The Liberals claim that books will no longer be taxed. This is not true and, as regards the GST credit on books, the government does not go far enough. Ever since Quebec introduced the QST, all books have been exempted from the provincial sales tax, not just those purchased by literacy institutions, schools, public libraries and so on. All books are QST exempt, including those purchased by consumers in bookstores, which represent the bulk of GST revenues on book sales.
The measure announced by the Minister of Finance and which the parliamentary secretary explained earlier this afternoon is a half-measure designed merely to enable the Liberals to boast that they have eliminated the GST on books, when in fact they have done no such thing.
Taxing books means taxing knowledge. It means taxing education and, in the longer term, it means taxing employment, given how important education is to finding a job in the new economy that is emerging in Canada.
The Bloc Quebecois has been fighting since the very beginning, even under the Conservatives, to have books exempted from the tax. But this can only be a total victory if all books are exempt from the GST, not just those bought by literacy and educational institutions.
With the federal election looming ahead, this government is resorting to a favourite strategy of the Liberal Party, that of the coverup. Whether it is the Somalia inquiry, the Krever commission, the Airbus affair or the Pearson Airport issue, the Liberals want to hide the truth from Quebecers and Canadians at any cost. They want to sweep everything under the rug as quickly as possible, before the election campaign.
The Liberals display exactly the same attitude, which is something of a tradition with them, toawrd the GST. The Liberal government is obviously embarrassed by the broken promise made by the Prime Minister and the heritage minister to eliminate the GST, a tax which they claim to hate. In order to avoid having to explain this broken promise, the Liberals want to reach an agreement at any cost with the maritime provinces on GST harmonization, so as to be able to claim that they at least did something, however little, to change a tax that is resented by all Canadians.
It is not the first time that Liberals make a colossal error which, in the end, ends up costing hundreds of millions of dollars to Canadian taxpayers. However, this time the Liberal government is also making a mockery of democracy by preventing elected members from the opposition to properly carry out their duties as parliamentarians.