I love the heckling. I have got them going. This is great.
In my riding there are 14 small business operators on my street alone. Every one of them complain about the underground economy because of the GST and HST rules. The GST-HST was shoved down the throats of Atlantic Canadians. It ended up that the underground economy grew to over $4 billion in the country. It is an utter disgrace that competent, well meaning and honest small businesses have to compete with the underground economy. The government did not address that problem in the budget.
One of the greatest concerns of our country—it is a national disgrace—is what we are doing to hepatitis C victims. I know Joey Haché is watching us right now and wants to know why the government completely ignored the constant concerns of hepatitis C victims. The government ignored those people just like it ignored the fishermen on the east and west coasts and in our inland provinces, just like it will ignore the miners of Cape Breton, just like it ignored the miners of Kamloops and just like it will let go the Volvo workers, the garment workers, the Bell workers and everyone else.
It is absolute disgrace. The government sits here and I noticed that not one member of the Liberal Party stood and spoke off the cuff. They all had to read prepared speeches, obviously done by bureaucrats in the finance department. They sound like a broken record.