Mr. Speaker, it is a pleasure to speak once again to Bill C-70, in particular to this group of motions.
There seems to be a common theme not only in how the bill came into being, but in the whole process that surrounds Bill C-70. It really explains why people are so concerned about the harmonization legislation. The common theme is a general lack of accountability, a lack of being able to hold the government accountable, and a series of gaps that have made the GST a real tar baby in terms of governments being able to deal with it and not draw all kinds of flack.
Let me start by going back a bit in time. I want to follow up on comments that were made by members of the Bloc Quebecois. First, we need to remember how this legislation came about in the first place. In 1993 during the election campaign the Prime Minister and the current Deputy Prime Minister said that under a Liberal government the GST would be gone, it would be eliminated. Of course, that is not the case.