Mr. Speaker, it is amazing, the Liberals stand up here and talk about scaremongering and fearmongering but they are the experts at it. That is exactly what they are doing right now to the hardworking Canadian taxpayers out there who are scared to death of another tax coming down the tube from this Liberal government. That is scaremongering.
Canadians are afraid to plan their futures. They are afraid to plan their children's education because they may not be able to afford it. They are afraid of losing their job. They are afraid of not being able to afford the next tax levy that comes down from this Liberal government. They are afraid to make any long term financial commitments because of this Liberal government's tax policies. That is real fearmongering. That is scaremongering at the highest level.
There is a whole larger issue at stake here with Bill C-70. This is just one small symptom of the big issue. That big issue can be addressed by asking when is a promise made a promise to be kept? When is a promise a promise? I would suggest that a promise is a promise only when it is not made verbally by a Liberal candidate in a federal election. That is the root of this issue.
Verbal promises have been tested in the highest courts of this land and have been found to be legally binding. But that does not matter to Liberal candidates who campaigned door to door in the 1993 election. They went door to door, meeting to meeting and verbally-they are very careful-said to the Canadian people "We hate the GST, we will scrap it, we will abolish it. We have always said that we hated the GST and when we get to be government, it will be gone. We will kill it".
That is what they said as they went from door to door, house to house, meeting to meeting, coffee party to coffee party. They made that verbal promise to the Canadian people, a type of promise which they do not recognize as being legally binding as it has been legally binding for decades in the highest courts of this land.
By contrast, when Reformers went from door to door, coffee party to coffee party, house to house, meeting to meeting, we promised the Canadian people that we would do our utmost to protect them from the Liberal tax and spend policies, and that is exactly what we do in this House on a daily basis. That is a promise kept. We made it verbally, we put it in writing and we are keeping that promise. We have the guts to do that, unlike this Liberal Party, which will say one thing from the mouth and put another thing on paper. That is the big issue here, integrity and honesty in this government, of which there is none.
When the government members sat in the benches over here as opposition to the Tory Party, which brought in this hated tax in the first place, they railed against it: "How could you do this to the Canadian people?" They called the Mulroney government every name in the book for bringing in this regressive and devastating tax. They were very vocal against it.
When they campaigned in 1993, the Liberals said to the Canadian people "Trust us, we're not like the Tories. First, we are telling you the truth and you must trust us. We will kill, scrap, abolish this dreaded Tory GST". That is what they said.
The Prime Minister said "we hate it and we will kill it". He said it on a radio program which he conveniently forgot, just as he completely forgot his imaginary friend. He said that he would kill the GST and when he was questioned by a member of the audience he asked "what radio station, where did I say it, come on?"
Fortunately the CBC was mad at the government at that time about the cuts to the CBC, which is another promise that was talked about by the minister of heritage. So the CBC decided to run some
tape which would show the Prime Minister for what he is, a person who does not believe a verbal promise is legally binding.
The Minister of Finance said "I would abolish the GST", which does not sound anything like "I would harmonize the GST. I would bury it in with some other tax". The minister of defence said "the GST is a regressive tax; it has to be scrapped and when we get to be government we will scrap it". That is what he said.
The bottom line is that the Liberals misled Canadians on their GST promise. To them a promise is not a promise. They misled Atlantic Canadians. Taxpayers across the country are going to pay for that broken promise and they are going to pay over and over again. It will hurt every taxpayer because in order to get the Atlantic provinces to agree to this harmonization scam, the Liberals are going to give them a cash payment to make up for the shortfall. Talk about a buyout. Talk about a buyout to try to somehow justify this Liberal broken promise once again.
This payment is estimated to be as high as $1 billion to Atlantic Canada and taxpayers in every other region of Canada are going to pay it. Tax relief is important but it has to be across the board if it is going to be tax relief. Canadians in certain regions of the country should not be asked to subsidize a tax cut for the maritimes. In all it is not a tax cut really.
The Liberals are using $1 billion from taxpayer money to buy a buried GST in Atlantic Canada so they can say their election promise slate is not as dirty as it has proven to be. This is truly despicable and Canadians are not missing this one. Believe me, they are not missing this Liberal broken promise.
They did not miss it on the national town hall meeting where the Prime Minister was caught red handed in a Liberal broken promise, a promise that his candidates from the Liberal Party told hundreds of thousands of Canadians, millions of Canadians in the 1993 election. He was caught in his own broken promise on videotape. Tapes do not lie. Videotapes do not lie.
It is interesting that Atlantic Canadians will also suffer because while they pay a lower tax rate, they will pay taxes on a larger variety of goods and services. In fact, a seemingly lower tax rate really does not mean necessarily a lower tax rate because you will be paying a seemingly lower rate but on a huge variety of goods and services. The tax base has been expanded. A neat Liberal trick.
It is nice that the government talks about child poverty. The harmonized tax will apply to children's clothing. Does that figure somewhere in child poverty? I understand children who are living in poverty do need cloths. They probably do not need a tax on those clothes.
It will apply to books. I understand that education helps to get children into a position where they will not have to live in poverty anymore. It will apply to haircuts. Even poor kids need a haircut.
It will apply to funeral services and heating oil. Heating oil is a major expenditure to families that live at the poverty level. Now the government is going to put a tax on heating oil. So much for its concern about the poorer Canadians of our society.
It will apply to gasoline. Poor Canadians in our society still have to go out and try to look for a job or ways to increase and improve their lot in life. Now the government is going to charge more gasoline taxes. And it will apply to new homes.
By the way, where have all the MPs from Atlantic Canada been in this debate? Where are all the MPs sent here from Atlantic Canada to protect the interests of the Atlantic Canadians, the maritimes? Where are they? They are sitting in their seats silent because they have been told to do so. "Don't you stand up and defend your constituents. This is a government bill and, by golly, if you dare speak against it you are going to be disciplined".
Where is the member from the Conservative Party? Where is she speaking on this? She is from Atlantic Canada, the maritimes.
This is a regressive tax. It is going to hurt Canadians. It is going to hurt the poorest of Canadians. How on earth could a Liberal government that promises to have the best interests of Canadians, the best interests of the poorest people in our society at heart, even conceive of putting such a regressive and hurtful tax on Canadians in this country?
