Mr. Speaker, actually the hon. member reminds me of an important development that I had forgotten to mention when he talked about the GST. It is not terribly surprising that retailers like a low GST, is it. They are retailers after all. But every economist who we heard, the IMF, the OECD, all of the experts agree that the GST cut does nothing for productivity.
The hon. member and his colleagues may remember that when we were in several cities in the country, St. John's, Vancouver and others, I did an informal poll of our witnesses. I asked the question of all of our witnesses, “Do you agree with the government that it is a good idea to proceed with the cut in GST from 6% to 5%, or can you think of other things you would rather do with this money?”
I remember the witnesses in both Vancouver and St. John's were particularly perceptive because to a man, to a woman, they voted unanimously that the GST cut was a bad idea, that there were far better uses for the money. In the other places, I do not remember a single person defending the GST cut, but there were others who, not wishing to go against the government , were agnostic on the subject. Certainly on both coasts there was unanimous condemnation of the second cut to the GST, as compared with far more productive uses to which that money could be put.