Mr. Speaker, I thank the member for kicking off this debate. It is an important motion because there are some principles involved. At the outset, the member talked about fairness and equity. In order for Canadians to have confidence in our system of taxation, all programs need to meet those benchmarks of being fair and equitable.
The member gave us some history, but I would like him to remind the House of the commitment of the Minister of Finance to the province of Quebec with regard to harmonization and the $2.6 billion. It is the compensation issue, something that was dealt with when the Maritimes made the transition to harmonization to deal with the cost of doing the process as well as to deal with issues of lost revenue.
It is important to put the commitment of the current Minister of Finance to the province of Quebec on the record for all to understand.