Mr. Speaker, from my perspective the big problem is heating fuel for low income people as someone mentioned earlier tonight. Should prices persist, and it is not certain that they will, then that has to be dealt with. The only alternative offered by the Conservative Party is over-simplified and is not going to help those people in a big way.
Those members give the impression that there is a large windfall from taxes for the federal government but there is no proof that there is. The excise tax is 10% per litre and that does not go up at all when the prices go up. The 7% GST is, as those members have said, a tax on a tax and that does go up when the price goes up.
There are mitigating factors that also cause the government to lose money. First of all it has to pay more for things that are indexed to inflation caused by these increases such as the GST rebate, old age security, et cetera. The government loses money in that respect. It also loses money when prices go up because people purchase less fuel. This is certainly not a windfall for the government and it may even lose money because of the total increase in price.
There have been several experiments with decreasing taxes, at least one in Canada and a couple in the United States, just as the Conservatives are proposing, but the decrease did not get passed on to the consumer. In Indiana and Illinois after a six month trial period it cost the government millions of dollars. That money could have been put into some other solution to help low income people. In one state the consumer ended up gaining only an amount equal to one tank of gas. In the other state the consumer ended up gaining an amount equal to half a tank of gas.
It sounds good on the surface but it has been proven that a large percentage of the good intention of decreasing taxes does not get passed on to the consumer, and from my perspective, to the low income people who are the ones who really need it.
I would like to know if the member's party has any other suggestions over and above the tax one to deal with this situation especially with respect to home heating fuel for low income people?