Mr. Speaker, I rise today to speak to a motion introduced last week by the Conservative government. This time allocation motion from the government has to do with the bill to harmonize sales taxes in British Columbia and Ontario with the federal sales tax, the goods and services tax.
In short, the federal government wants this bill, which has not yet been introduced in the House of Commons, to be voted on before it has been seen. That is rather unusual, as the member for Saint-Maurice—Champlain pointed out.
The Conservative government has introduced this time allocation motion, and we have been forced to vote on it before even knowing the content and details of this sales tax harmonization bill. What is going on here in the House of Commons is not at all democratic, and I am very surprised to see the Liberals supporting this initiative.
That is why we opposed the motion we are debating, because we still believe it would be completely irresponsible for us to agree to time allocation without knowing the content of this tax harmonization bill or having had the time to study and analyze it.
The Bloc Québécois is a responsible party that always works solely to defend the interests of Quebeckers. We will not hand a blank cheque to a government, especially this Conservative government, in which we have no confidence.
This government has repeatedly shown that it is out of touch with Quebeckers' needs and interests. For example, in the midst of an economic crisis, this government refused to undertake a comprehensive reform of employment insurance in order to increase EI accessibility.
This government came up with a temporary, piecemeal reform that would benefit Ontario's industrial workers. But thousands of forestry workers in Quebec, as well as seasonal workers and young people, have no access to these employment insurance benefits. Moreover, we know that during the economic crisis in the 1990s, the Liberals made deep cuts in EI reforms.
We no longer have confidence in this Conservative government, which is refusing to eliminate the waiting period, thereby penalizing thousands of workers who are unfortunately losing their jobs, such as the people in my riding who lost their jobs after fires at Coloridé in Louiseville and Meubles JLM in Saint-Édouard-de-Maskinongé. The fires were not their fault, but as the holiday season approaches, these workers in my riding have had to endure an unwarranted two-week waiting period. This government does not care about their plight. I have sent a letter to the minister, asking her to waive the waiting period for these workers who have just lost their jobs because of a fire.
We cannot have confidence in this government, which is insisting on creating a single securities commission, despite the unanimous opposition of the National Assembly of Quebec and which is enabling big business to avoid paying billions of dollars of tax by using tax havens, when that money could be put to good use helping the unemployed and low-income seniors.
We see the position on greenhouse gas reductions taken by this government in Copenhagen, to the detriment of Quebec, a position that does not even reflect the will of the House of Commons.
The same is true of the matter before us today. We have asked many questions here in the House regarding the federal government's stubborn refusal to provide Quebec with fair and just compensation for harmonizing its sales tax.
In 1992, Quebec was the first jurisdiction to harmonize its sales tax with the GST.
It is also important to remember that the Bloc Québécois voted in favour of this ways and means notice—which prepares the way for the introduction of the bill on the framework for harmonizing Ontario's and British Columbia's sales taxes with the federal GST—because we wanted to study this bill much more carefully.
As the hon. member for Saint-Maurice—Champlain pointed out, Quebec is still waiting to receive compensation for harmonizing its sales tax, which it did 17 years ago. We have been asking for compensation since that time, but the Conservative government ignores our requests.
The government moved a motion for time allocation before we even saw the bill. We cannot agree with a motion that limits the amount time we have to study the bill we are discussing. The fact that the Conservative government, supported by the Liberals, moved a motion like this is undemocratic and unjustified.
For Quebec, fair and just compensation for having harmonized its sales tax is crucial and important. For several years now, we have been asking this government to act fairly towards Quebec by compensating it for having harmonized its sales tax with the GST, as is the case for Ontario, British Columbia and the Maritimes.
It is important to remind all the members of this House, especially the Conservative and Liberal members from Quebec who were elected to represent the interests of that province, that the federal government's refusal goes against the clear, unanimous position of the Quebec National Assembly.
It is shameful that members who run for election in Quebec and are elected to defend the interests of Quebeckers should act against a unanimous resolution of the National Assembly. That is a dishonest thing to do to voters.
All members from Quebec should listen to me carefully. I would like to again read the resolution that was unanimously passed by the Quebec National Assembly on March 31, 2009:
WHEREAS Québec was the first province to harmonize with the Federal goods and services tax (GST) in the early 1990s;
WHEREAS since then, three Atlantic provinces have harmonized with the GST in 1997 and have received compensation for this from the Federal Government totalling close to 1 billion dollars;
WHEREAS the Government of Ontario announced that it would harmonize its sales tax with the GST beginning on 1 July 2010;
WHEREAS the Federal Government will grant a 4.3 billion dollar compensation to Ontario for this harmonization, an amount that is justified in the Canada-Ontario memorandum of understanding particularly owing to the desire to stimulate economic growth and job creation, and the Federal Government will administer this new provincial tax free of charge on behalf of Ontario;
WHEREAS the Ontario sales tax will be very similar to the Québec sales tax (QST) since certain goods, such as books, will not be subject to the provincial tax and that input tax refunds in Ontario may be identical to those agreed to by Québec for an 8-year period;
WHEREAS Ontario is the fourth province to receive compensation from the Federal Government as part of the harmonization of the provincial and federal sales taxes, while Québec has not received any compensation to this day even though it was the first province to harmonize its sales tax;
BE IT RESOLVED THAT [I urge MPs from Quebec to listen carefully] the National Assembly ask the Federal Government to treat Québec justly and equitably, by granting compensation that is comparable to that offered to Ontario for the harmonization of its sales tax with the GST, which would represent an amount of 2.6 billion dollars for Québec.
This was passed unanimously by all parties in the National Assembly, including the ADQ and the Liberals of Quebec. We know that the federal Liberals want to get closer to the Liberals of Quebec, but here in the House, they are still voting against the interests of Quebec. Naturally, the Parti Québécois voted in favour of the motion.
Contrary to the Conservative and Liberal MPs from Quebec, the elected members of the Bloc Québécois speak for the consensus in Quebec and the interests of Quebec without compromise.
It is with this motion in mind that we intend to follow the debates on this matter and the bill to harmonize sales tax in British Columbia and Ontario with the federal sales tax on goods and services.
Let us not forget in all of this that Quebec was the first to harmonize its sales tax with the new GST in the early 1990s, as I was saying earlier.
At that time, under an agreement with Ottawa, Quebec took on responsibility for the collection of federal tax in its territory.
In 1997, the federal government came to an agreement with three Atlantic provinces over compensation to encourage them to harmonize their provincial sales taxes with the federal GST.
Since then, the three Atlantic provinces have received the equivalent of about $1 billion in compensation.
In light of this, it was completely natural for the Government of Quebec to ask the federal government for compensation, since it had harmonized before the Atlantic provinces. But there is nothing for Quebec. This Conservative government tries to win over Quebec during elections. However, when it is time to vote in the House of Commons, when it is time to present a budget to support the Quebec economy, it never follows through. However, it is always there for its supporters in western Canada, especially those in Alberta and Saskatchewan. As we know the oil industry is very big in those provinces.
An MP from Quebec, Paul Martin, who was the federal finance minister at the time, refused outright to compensate Quebec stating that only those provinces that would lose more than 5% of their sales taxes would be compensated.
It is now clear that the 5% rule invented by the Liberals is no longer valid.
It is clear that Ontario and British Columbia will lose less than 5% of their revenue once they harmonize their sales taxes with the GST, and yet they will be compensated.
It is only right that Quebec should receive adequate compensation. It is only right that all Quebec members sitting in this House of Commons support the unanimous position of the National Assembly, which I read earlier.
We, the members of the Bloc Québécois, will not hesitate to defend this position.
Members should note that Ontario will receive $4.3 billion and British Columbia $1.6 billion in compensation. Only Quebec, the first province to harmonize its sales tax with the GST, has still not been compensated for harmonizing its sales tax with the GST.
The Conservatives still want to hear nothing of it; they turn a deaf ear and find false pretexts to avoid responding to Quebec's demands.
In fact, now that the 5% rule no longer applies, the Conservative government requires that a single tax be collected in Quebec from now on. In other words, it wants us to stop collecting the tax on a tax. It is unbelievable to see the Conservatives interfering in the Quebec nation's areas of jurisdiction like this.
Furthermore, the government is asking Quebec to turn over management of the GST and QST to the federal government, so that it can manage it on behalf of Quebec. It is hard to understand and accept this interference in Quebec's areas of jurisdiction. It is time for us to become sovereign and manage our own taxes, collect our own taxes and sign all of our own international treaties.
The Government of Quebec unanimously agrees that it does not want to turn over management of the taxes to the federal government. It is clear that the Conservative government has not been honest with Quebec, and I cannot believe that elected members from Quebec support the federal government's decision.
As I already said, we will thoroughly study this bill to harmonize provincial sales taxes in Ontario and British Columbia with the GST. We want to ensure that this legislative framework includes provisions that will help negotiations between the Government of Quebec and the federal government result in a solution that is fair to Quebec.
The Bloc Québécois is here to defend Quebeckers' interests. That is why we want to find a fair solution by making sure that the legislative framework to be proposed will provide the necessary flexibility to ensure that Quebec's choices in terms of taxation are permitted and respected. That does not seem to be what the Conservative government and the Liberals want at the moment.
We also have to make sure that the framework will enable Quebec to keep collecting its own sales tax, the QST, and the federal tax, the GST, within its boundaries, which it has been doing since the mid-1990s.
Finally, we want to make sure that compensation offered to Quebec will be the same as that to be provided to Ontario and British Columbia and that already given to the Atlantic provinces. We are not asking for more. We simply want to receive fair and just treatment, which is not currently the case.
We expect the federal government to come up with a proposal that will be fair to Quebeckers. We want it to be just and fair to the Quebec nation and to all of the other Canadian provinces that want to harmonize their taxes.
To summarize, we want the federal government to treat Quebec fairly by providing compensation for having harmonized the provincial sales tax with the GST.
That is why we will oppose the government's time allocation motion to speed up the process to pass a bill that we have not even seen. That is fundamentally undemocratic.
I am ready to answer questions now.
