Mr. Speaker, the member is absolutely right: retailers in Canada, especially those along the border with the United States, are already hit hard by a price differential between our two countries that makes no sense. There is no justification for it in most cases, and now they will be faced with a double whammy by these tax increases by the government.
Why is the government doing it? It is because it has an artificial political deadline of balancing the books by 2015, prior to the next election. That is the political commitment it has made. Where will it get the money? It will grab it out of the pockets of average Canadians, rather than making its friends pay their fair share of taxes and contribute to the national good and welfare.