Mr. Speaker, I would like to congratulate the member for Vancouver Island North on his initiative on this. I sit on the finance committee, and I was there when this item came forward for consideration. The history which has been given is correct with respect to this going back many years. The Canadian Jewellers Association was formed for the express purpose of having this excise tax removed. I believe this goes back to the time of the war effort when the tax was justified.
At committee we considered the proposal to remove the tax from watches, jewellery and clocks. The original proposal that came from the member for Vancouver Island North dealt with jewellery and the issue that watches had not been included. That was dealt with by virtue of a proposed amendment at the committee.
The main concern is, as diamond production grows in Canada, perhaps making us one of the largest diamond producers in the world, we want to ensure that jewellers and their business, particularly those located close to the border, are in a competitive position.
The primary discussion that we had at the committee with respect to the jewellery industry was whether it should be phased out in one move, as is proposed by the hon. member, or whether it should be phased out as proposed by the government. The previous committee was sympathetic and the government was agreeable with the minister that the tax should be removed
I would point out that there are some 12 or 13 private members' bills, many of which are very well-intentioned and have good value, as is the bill of my colleague across the room. However, the our concern is that the cost of all these well-intentioned private members' bills is something like $2.5 billion. In fact the lost revenue from this proposal alone would amount to $85 million a year when phased out. Those were the issues that we had to consider.
We received delegations from the industry--