Mr. Speaker, the House of Commons is dealing with a crucial bill for the province of Quebec, Bill C-70, an act to harmonize the infamous GST with the provincial sales tax in three Canadian provinces, namely New Brunswick, Nova Scotia and Newfoundland.
This harmonization is another example of discrimination against the province of Quebec, which is nothing new. As early as 1841-and this is making the members opposite smile-the union of Lower and Upper Canada brought about the harmonization of the debts of the two territories. Lower Canada, that is the province of Quebec, French Canada if you prefer, was not heavily in debt at the time, but did not have a lot of infrastructures in place. On the other hand, Upper Canada was 12 times deeper in debt, but had a lot of roads, harbours, railroads, et cetera. After the union, Quebecers had to pay for the debts of English Canada. That is how our marriage to English Canada started. The majority at the time decided to split the debts equally between the two founding nations.
In 1997 as in 1841, we have the same remedy, the same type of discrimination. Given how the GST is being harmonized in three maritime provinces, according to a simple rule of three, Quebec should get nothing less than $2 billion in compensation.
What did the federal government offer Robert Bourassa, a Liberal from Quebec, when he agreed to harmonize with Brian Mulroney's Conservative government?
Quebec was the first province in Canada to harmonize its provincial sales tax with the GST, but it did not get anything in return, except, of course, the sharing on a fifty-fifty basis of the costs associated with collecting the GST and the QST. Quebec taxpayers were even proud of this harmonization. As a farmer, I was happy too because instead of filling two forms, one for Ottawa and one for Quebec, I would have to fill only one form. So, personally, I was proud of the Quebec government at that time, even though it was headed by a Liberal, namely Robert Bourassa.
What I am driving at, Mr. Speaker, and your smile tells me you already know, is that Ottawa did not pay Quebec any compensation, and it is now ready to give these three small Atlantic provinces nothing less than a billion dollars. That is a flagrant case of injustice.
The same thing happened in 1996 when this government abolished the Western Grain Transportation Act. It released $3 billion to compensate three western provinces. It gave them $3 billion.
Last year, in 1996, as the member for Saint-Hyacinthe-Bagot knows, the same government decided to abolish subsidies to industrial milk producers. What did Quebec producers get as compensation? Nothing. That is the kind of equality that exists in our country. That is the kind of medicine Quebecers get from this Liberal government. It is not surprising, my friends, that the Liberal Party is so low in the polls in Quebec.
We cannot wait to see the result of the next election. The Prime Minister himself, in his own riding of Saint-Maurice, will-to use his own expression-take a beating. That is what he was telling us before the referendum. Well, he is the one who is going to take a beating.
It takes nothing more than the rule of three to demonstrate that this government is cheating Quebecers out of $2 billion in this harmonization deal with the maritimes.
There is another example of discrimination, this time against Quebec and Ontario. You certainly know that, in recovering the costs associated with the RCMP, the federal government recovers only 70 per cent of the real costs. Quebec and Ontario each have their own provincial police force, namely the Sûreté du Québec and the OPP.
We pay 100 per cent of the costs associated with these police services. We pay whatever these services cost. But the other provinces pay only 70 per cent of the real cost of their police services. So Quebec and Ontario both are paying 30 per cent of the costs of the police forces in the maritimes and in most of the western provinces. Where is the equity? Where is the fairness in this country? As far back as 1841 it has been the same thing, year after year.
I would like to come back to the GST. Since October 1993, or let us say November 1993, the Liberal government has been turning in an amateur performance. It has improvised every last step of the way. First of all, think back to the 1993 election campaign, in September and October. The Deputy Prime Minister, the member for Hamilton East, made a solemn promise to step down if they had not abolished the GST in the first 12 months of their mandate.
Obviously, she will say today that she kept her word. But I would remind you that, just like a mother bird pushes her chick out of the nest to teach it to fly, the opposition members had to give her a shove to get her to resign. The Deputy Prime Minister's blunder cost Canadian taxpayers no less than $500,000.
When they are reminded of these mistakes and of the fact that this government improvised and behaved like a rookie, it hurts, of course. It hurts the Liberal members.
In 1993, all members heard the Prime Minister say in caucus that he was going to abolish the GST, to scrap it. One of their own dared to vote against the finance minister's budget last year. Like a good father, the Prime Minister kicked him out. As you know, I am talking about the member for York South-Weston. In December, during a question here, he reminded the Prime Minister that on at least three occasions he had promised to abolish the GST and had not kept his promise.
In closing, I would like to remind you of the credibility we politicians have with our electorate. Yesterday, in the House, we were once again treated to the sad display of two members removing their jackets and preparing to fight it out in the House of Commons, the people's Chamber. This makes us look ridiculous.
The Liberal member from British Columbia, the member for Okanagan-Shuswap, and the Liberal member for Scarborough Centre took off their jackets, undid their shirts and got ready to fight it out-