Mr. Speaker, I am pleased to speak on Bill C-70. Before addressing the subject matter of the bill, I would like to respond, if I may, to something that was said by the hon. member who spoke before me.
He accused the Bloc Quebecois of being against harmonizing the GST. Either he misunderstood what we said or he got it wrong. Quebec was the first province to harmonize its sales tax with the GST, and we did it at our own expense. What we disagree with is the fact that, months before an election, the government is considering spending $1.3 billion to help eastern provinces harmonize their taxes, while we did it at our own expense. That is what we object to.
Allow me to say a few words today about Bill C-70. First of all, I wonder about the democratic values underlying this Liberal government's actions. The public is shocked by the way this government operates, which is hardly transparent.
I told you yesterday how difficult it was to obtain information from Heritage Canada on the cost of the Take it to Heart program, an initiative to promote Canadian citizenship. The Liberal government is taking a hard line on more serious and complex issues. There are countless examples. Just think of the Somalia inquiry, the Krever Commission, the Airbus affair, the Pearson Airport deal. The Liberals are camouflaging the facts and hindering the proper functioning of our democratic institutions.
If we had to find a three-letter word that best sums up the image, the weakness, the incompetence of this government, the one that would immediately come to mind is "GST", because it represents unkept promises, mismanagement, improvisation, arrogance, lack of accountability, deceit.
That same undemocratic attitude motivates the government in connection with the GST. They are rushing this bill through, systematically concealing the facts from Quebecers and Canadians, so as to clear the way for the next election campaign.
What they will not be able to conceal, however, is the embarrassment of the Prime Minister and the Heritage Minister over their failure to keep their promise to scrap the GST, to kill it. It is clear that the Prime Minister does not want to have to apologize again, as he had to after his appearance on the CBC on December 12, when Johanne Savoie, a Montreal waitress, backed him into a corner by asking him about his campaign promise on the abolition, pure and simple, of the unpopular goods and services tax. Let us recall the Globe and Mail editorial headed The Prime Minister is lying'', where it states, and I quote:
The Prime Minister told a lie. Not a fib, not a prevarication, not a disingenuous remark-''