Mr. Speaker, first I would like to point out that he was talking about the inevitability of a universal sales tax right across this country when three and a half years ago they were talking absolutely and categorically that there would be no sales tax courtesy of the federal government. So this is an absolute, complete turnaround on behalf of the member for Willowdale.
While the member talks about a universal sales tax right across the country, it seems to me he is talking in the same model that they have proposed for Atlantic Canada of 15 per cent right across the board. What does he intend to do for the province of Alberta which has no provincial sales tax at all at this point in time and the people of Alberta have no intention of having any provincial sales tax of any kind? Is it the intention of the member that the government would compensate the province of Alberta by reducing its rate, according to what kind of vision he has, so that it would only pay the federal rate so that Albertans would recognize that they are not subsidizing the rest of Canada as they have done in many other issues?
We think back to the national energy policy of 1983 where Albertans basically carried the federal government and the rest of the country on their backs. They felt that they were being hard done by as billions of dollars flowed from the province of Alberta to the rest of the country.
I would like to ask the member when he envisions this universal sales tax right across the country, whether or not Alberta is going to pay more than its share again and how inevitable is this tax when three and a half years ago the Liberals were telling us there would be no tax at all?