Francis Scarpaleggia on Government Business No. 43—Proceedings on Bill C-78

In the House of Commons on November 28th, 2024. See this statement in context.

Government Business No. 43—Proceedings on Bill C-78Government Orders

November 28th, 2024 / 6:50 p.m.

Liberal

Francis Scarpaleggia Liberal Lac-Saint-Louis, QC

Madam Speaker, the member is a very erudite colleague and I turn to him for answers.

Members on the other side are saying that this policy is inflationary, yet in 2008, the Harper government reduced the GST by 1% on everything, in other words, everything in the basket of goods used to calculate the CPI. We are just taking the GST off a very narrowly focused basket of goods for a temporary period of time, which is a slow point in the retail cycle.

How is it that the other reduction of the GST was not inflationary, but this one is? In both cases, there were government deficits.

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