Mr. Speaker, it is unfortunate that this member and his government are not prepared to take some responsibility for their role in advocating for the HST.
As I mentioned in my opening remarks, as far back as 2006, the Conservative Minister of Finance was talking about HST being good economic policy. In fact, what we have seen in this past budget are inducements to provinces to implement the HST.
The government might try to distance itself from this and claim that it is simply a provincial responsibility, but the truth of the matter is that it has been playing an active role in getting provinces to sign on to it, $1.6 billion worth of an active role, in the province of British Columbia.
The reason New Democrats have been so consistent in raising this is that we are hearing from our constituents from one end of the province to the other that they do not want the harmonized sales tax. They do not want to pay extra money for funerals, gym fees, housing and restaurant meals.
If the government were seriously worried about our citizens, it would step back from the role that it is taking in the inducement for the HST.