Mr. Speaker, that response was completely disingenuous. I have enough respect for the parliamentary secretary to know that he knows it is disingenuous to suggest that it will take the government eight years from the lowering of general corporate tax rates in 2000 to bring about full equity for the non-mineral resource sector because it wanted to consult “with the stakeholders”.
In other words, the parliamentary secretary is trying to tell us that oil and gas companies were asking the government to do this as slowly as possible, that these companies, which are responsible for hundreds of thousands of jobs in our economy, asked the government to please let them consult over three years about whether they would ever get the tax equity with other corporations and that it should please take five years after that to implement it. This is utterly ridiculous.
The other reason the member alluded to for the eight year delay in tax equity for this important sector was that it was necessary to do things in the context of fiscal responsibility. Once fully implemented the total static forgone revenue projection for this tax change will be $260 million a year. If I am not mistaken, that is about as much as the cabinet decided to spend on new jets.
Where are the priorities? If it is really about fiscal responsibility, why not cut the parties of the Minister of Canadian Heritage at Whistler and across the country? Why not put the jets on hold?