Madam Speaker, I would like my colleague to give his opinion on the fact that in January we had the former Ontario finance minister talk about this very situation, the so-called overpayment to the provinces by the federal government. He was quoted as saying “There's no way that this series of mistakes by the federal government is going to be visited on the backs of the taxpayers of Ontario.” He also said “We can also terminate the tax collection agreement with Ottawa and collect our own income taxes in Ontario”.
In the following month we have a quote from the British Columbia finance minister who said, “If we are going to keep re-opening these things 10 years back, there is absolutely no way the provinces can continue to work with the federal government on a tax arrangement”.
This all relates of course to the common federal and provincial tax collection system administered by the federal government.
Does my colleague from Surrey Central believe that the efficiency of one tax collection system is at risk if the federal government takes unilateral action to make the provinces pay for the federal government's mistake?