Mr. Speaker, the hon. member mentioned some of my professional background but he is in fact an accountant. There are very few CAs on the floor of the House of Commons, so we benefit from his insight on some of these issues as well.
We will be hearing in a moment from the member for Markham—Unionville who can speak to some of the issues around tax reform and the importance of ensuring we have a more competitive tax system for Canadian manufacturers and the entire industrial sector in order to compete and succeed globally.
One of the things in which economists across Canada have been unanimous is the condemnation of the government's decision to cut a consumption tax and not to reduce in a broad based way other types of taxes, including personal income tax.
It is critically important that we not only build a more competitive business tax environment and personal tax environment, but that we also reduce taxes on capital, on investment and on the kinds of technology required to strengthen competitiveness. That is the kind of effort that the government ought to be pursuing, instead of cutting the GST. Cutting consumption taxes is bad public policy, bad social policy and bad economic policy.