Mr. Speaker, Conservative and Liberal MPs in the House can run on this issue but they ultimately cannot hide, because they are going to have to face the voters' wrath next July 1. To make the argument that somehow the provinces are knocking down their doors to sign into this deal is totally wrong.
The fact of the matter is that in the federal finance minister's budget of May 2, 2006, it said:
The Government invites all provinces that have not yet done so to engage in discussions on the harmonization of their provincial retail sales tax with the federal GST.
There it is in black and white.
As well, in a speech to the C.D. Howe Institute on April 10, 2008, the finance minister said, “we're also calling on the remaining provinces that have not harmonized their PST with the GST to work with us to accomplish that goal of harmonization”.
In fact, in Manitoba there was just a rejection of the overtures that have been made, pressuring the province over the last year.
I would like the member to come clean and just admit that these two parties are getting together over the Christmas holidays, essentially, to sneak this whole deal through the back door with closure and the whole works. We are getting the whole nine yards here.