Mr. Speaker, this is a debate about priorities and it is quite a remarkable coincidence that there is almost virtual unanimity among some of the major and leading economists.
The Conservative position is that it lowers the GST and ups personal income taxes. Today's Globe and Mail reads:
All 20 economists said other tax cuts would be better for the country than trimming another percentage point from the goods and services tax, which represents more than $5-billion in revenue.
In a remarkable show of unanimity on public policy, given that the responses were from organizations as diverse as the Fraser Institute, the auto workers, the Canadian Manufacturers Association, the Bank of Montreal and the Halifax based Institute for Market Studies, they all said that the government's priorities were all wrong.
Does the hon. member opposite know how much revenue was raised by moving the base threshold rate from 15% to 15.5%, which more than offset and paid for his GST cut and his boutique cuts?
“Cutting the GST could encourage more consumption at exactly the wrong time,” said Patricia Croft. “Domestic demand is already very strong and encouraging additional consumption could make the Bank of Canada's job tougher at this juncture.”
Why is it that the government persists in flying in the face of virtually unanimous opinion among economists and making the Bank of Canada's job even more difficult by making the exact wrong choices? Could the hon. member answer that question?