Mr. Speaker, I had the honour to represent Yorkton—Melville in the House for 25 years. I understand why you said Yorkton—Melville. I want to say a few words on the changes to the GST, which the bill before the House implement.
I remember the great debate in the House of Commons when the GST went through. I believe it was in 1991. There was a great debate about changing our taxation system. We used to have what was called a manufacturers' sales tax. The government of the day, the Mulroney Conservative government, decided to replace that tax with the goods and services tax.
We had a great debate in the finance committee. I was a member of the finance committee at the time as the NDP finance critic. We studied the issue ad nauseam. We had hearings on it. I remember spending several days writing a report on it with members of the finance committee. We made recommendations. There were all kinds of changes made at the time to the initial proposal of the government. The GST came in and the old manufacturers' sales tax disappeared. At the time we voiced a lot of concerns about the GST itself.
First, the problem with the GST is that it is a tax that the government likes. It takes in a lot of money, I believe $23 million to $24 million. Every point in the GST brings in roughly $3.5 million of revenue.
Another problem with the GST is that it is all encompassing and taxes things like funerals. It taxes reading materials, books and a whole series of things that are necessities of life at the same level it taxes things that are not necessities or things that might be purchased for entertainment, luxury goods and things of that sort.
Another thing is that the GST is a very regressive tax. It does not matter what our income is, we still pay the same GST. We pay 7% for a haircut. Whether we are rich or poor, we still pay that same 7%. When we buy clothes we pay 7%. It is a very regressive tax in terms of having a fair and balanced tax system.
I have always believed that in a democratic society that looks after the common good we should pay taxes based on the ability to pay. If we make more money we should pay more in tax. The tax rate for those making $100,000 should be higher than it should be for someone making $30,000, $40,000, $20,000 or $25,000 a year. For those making a million dollars a year the tax rate should be higher still. There has to be a progressive taxation system in the country. The problem with the GST is that it is not progressive. It hits everybody in the same way in terms of paying the same rate of tax on the same goods and commodities.
If we look around we see many necessities on which people pay GST. I mentioned haircuts, all kinds of clothing and a lot of the necessities of life on which we pay GST.