Mr. Speaker, we want to talk about the 2013 budget, but the Conservatives want to talk about the 2006 budget.
We have a Conservative government that promised not to raise taxes. However, taxes will go up by $8 billion over the next five years. I would have liked my colleague to respond to the arguments already presented here, but she will not. The Conservatives are again harping on about carbon taxes and the GST, which they increased, a measure that has been criticized by most credible economists in Canada.
If the Conservative government wanted to increase and improve economic growth, and make the economy more stable, it could have done so in a number of other ways. At the time, increasing the GST was the least effective means, but that is what the government went with.
For our part, we do not have an official policy on increasing the GST, despite the government's fearmongering. However, we do want the government to discuss these increases.