Mr. Speaker, the member mentioned it in her speech and she knows full well, as does every member of the House, that the decision of whether or not to harmonize provincial sales taxes with the GST is the sole responsibility of the province.
Not only does she know that, but there are other members in this place who know it very intimately. In fact, we have two former premiers, of the provinces of B.C. and Ontario, sitting in the House as members of the official opposition. As the member well knows, the sitting member for Vancouver South and the sitting member for Toronto Centre, former premiers of B.C. and Ontario respectively, have said in the past that the decision of whether or not to harmonize their provincial sales tax with the GST is the responsibility of provinces.
That is well documented. I would point out that the premier of my home province of Saskatchewan, Mr. Brad Wall, has already stated that Saskatchewan does not intend to harmonize its provincial sales tax with the GST. In other words, it is strictly up to the province. Some provinces want to go down that road. They can see some advantages to harmonizing their sales tax provincially with the GST for business reasons and to attract business investment into the provinces.
Premier Wall has stated that he does not want to harmonize Saskatchewan's sales tax with the GST because he feels that it might place too much of an added burned on the citizens. However, the decision is strictly that of the province, and the member well knows that.
In the few moments I have left, I just want to point out that that is not the reason this member and other members of the NDP continually raise this issue. We all know that members of the NDP have never been known as tax cutters. In fact, they like to raise taxes because it is the tax-and-spend philosophy that they have always held.
The reason this member and her colleagues in the NDP are making the HST situation such an issue in the House is that there will be a federal byelection occurring very shortly in British Columbia. The member assumes, and perhaps she is correct, that this is a very hot-button issue with the residents of British Columbia.
By asking this and other questions during the regular question period on a day-to-day basis, she is trying to impress upon the residents of British Columbia that the Conservative Party and the Liberal Party are the ones who are trying to force this down the throats of consumers in British Columbia. By contrast, she is trying to portray her candidate in the federal byelection as the one who opposes the HST while the other main candidates do not.
That is the reason these questions are coming so frequently in the House. It is not because the NDP opposes harmonization. Given the opportunity, the NDP would raise taxes across the board in any environment and any jurisdiction. This member and her colleagues are raising this issue strictly for political reasons.
Quite frankly, it is a sham. I think that most Canadians can see through that sham. I am here to put it on the record.