Mr. Speaker, I withdraw these words because I was quoting a text, not making an accusation.
That is what Quebecers and Canadians will remember-in any case, they heard it on television and they read about it in the media-when they mark their ballots in the next general election.
I deplore the attitude of a government that tries to prevent us from doing our job as parliamentarians. As a member of the official opposition, I may remind this House that we had less than 24 hours to examine a very technical bill more than 300 pages long, before proceeding with second reading.
This week, the opposition had not yet received the printed version of Bill C-70 as amended in committee, and this was 24 hours before resuming debate on third reading. How can we possibly do our job as parliamentarians under those conditions? Either the Liberal government is terribly inefficient or it is deliberately engaging in obstruction. Hon. members may draw their own conclusions.
This has been said before but it bears repeating: the Liberals do not keep their promises and have a very selective memory.
Not so long ago when they were in opposition, in November 1989, the Liberal members of the Standing Committee on Finance maintained that the goods and services tax proposed by the Conservative government was not a good proposal and that no amount of tinkering would make it fair to the taxpayer.
But what are that same party's representatives proposing today, if not tinkering? It makes no sense. Hiding the tax in the price does not change anything. The GST stays the same, at the same rate, and the provincial tax will harmonize accordingly. This tax will be just as bad and just as unfair to the taxpayer.
By hiding the GST in the sales price, the government is opening the door wide to a possible increase in the GST in the days to come. And do not tell us that consumers want this. Consumers want the Liberal government to keep its promises, including scrapping the GST.
The official opposition believes there can be no sales tax reform without a tax reform that covers all forms of taxation at all levels of government. For more than three years, the Bloc Quebecois has been asking the Minister of Finance about this, but the minister and his government prefer to cut transfers to the provinces, and the Prime Minister prefers to choke the unemployed.
There was the survey by the Canadian Chamber of Commerce in 1994, in which 70 per cent of Canadian businesses said they were opposed to hiding the tax. In February 1996, the same survey reconfirmed this point, with not 70 per cent but 76 per cent of Canadian businesses opposed to harmonizing the tax. That is revealing.
Another major problem is the political gift to the maritime provinces of some $1 billion in tax money paid by Canadians. The official opposition thinks all provinces should also benefit from agreements relating to harmonization, including compensation. Why should there be a double standard on the issue of compensation?
As my time is up, I will conclude by saying that Quebecers will see once again it does not pay to work with the federal government. They will see that the approach of this government has not changed. It is plan B, and we will continue to oppose it.