Mr. Speaker, I thank the hon. member for St. Albert for his question.
It is very simple. Canada is a difficult country to govern, as we all know, with its various jurisdictions. When the members of the finance committee recommended that the 10 different sales taxes be replaced by a single national value added tax we contemplated two things. We did a lot of work on this.
We contemplated and recommended a tax that could be brought in one province or two provinces at a time. In other words, not all provinces had to accede to the new regime at the same time. Second, although it makes a more complicated tax, provinces did not have to come in all at the same rate.
Over time I can see provinces coming in at different rates. For example, Premier Harris had promised before the last Ontario election that Ontario recognized the incredible advantages to that province of having a harmonized sales tax system. Ontario could probably harmonize at about 13 to 14 per cent instead of 15 per cent and be revenue neutral. Why would it come in at a higher rate?
The tax system in place, as the member for St. Albert well knows because he has a strong accounting background, envisages the possibility of different rates. It would be easier to administer if the rate is the same in every province and maybe over years, after all the provinces have acceded to the tax, the rates will come together. That will be a further step in the process of simplification.
When the member goes back to the perceived injustices of the national energy program of the 1980s, why does he not talk about the billions of dollars of tax grants that were given to make the tar sands available just recently? Is he ashamed of that? Why does he not talk about the millions on millions of dollars that we are giving to the farmers in western Canada, the western diversification fund, in helping them transport their goods to market or to diversify and get away from their dependence on some of the funds they have had?
What bothers me most about this debate is that we can differ as parliamentarians about the HST. But when members deliberately set out to create a balance sheet where they do not put in all the figures on what provinces are receiving from Confederation, they are trying to be divisive and set provinces against provinces, rather than recognizing that we are so fortunate to be in this country.
This country is diverse, with different economic circumstances from coast to coast. But part of being a nation is to help those regions from time to time with things like equalization and perhaps special breaks that will help them with their resources, with their transportation needs or whatever. That is the essence to me of being a country.
I do not shy away from these programs which are entered into in the spirit of helping those regions that need it most. This, to me, is what this nation is about.