Madam Speaker, I must commend the Liberal member for his courage. He rises quite often to speak. I think he holds the record for the number of speeches given, and I sincerely commend him for that.
Eliminating the GST on certain products cannot be done willy-nilly like that. It does not sit well with people. In Quebec, almost everyone feels that way. People do not like that, and businesses are tearing their hair out over this two-month measure. Taxes are going to be taken off some products, but we are still not entirely sure which products the measure covers. Two months later, the government is going to reapply the tax. I think it cost the public treasury $1.6 billion. They say that people will benefit from this measure, but we need to know who is going to benefit. Who is going to benefit the most from these one-time exemptions? It will not be the people in greatest need, the people who need more help from the government. They are not the ones who stand to benefit. In economics, this is called a regressive measure. It is not a good measure.
At some point, the government has to take the public money contributed by taxpaying Quebeckers and Canadians. Before that money even reaches their pockets the government takes it away. We need a more serious approach. The Liberals are managing things haphazardly and they could have done better. We have a few suggestions for them. All they have to do is listen.