Mr. Speaker, the Minister of Finance wrote to his Quebec counterpart to say that he was pleased Quebec is considering the possibility of joining the harmonized sales tax club. Reading between the lines, the government wants to impose the Ontario model and put an end to Quebec administering the federal GST, which the province has been doing quite well since 1991.
Why does the Minister of Finance want to fix something that is not broken and impose the Ontario model on Quebec? Is that what open federalism means for the Conservatives—taking advantage of the crisis to force Quebec into the mould?