Finance committee  The first thing would be for Quebec to enter into a formal agreement with the federal government. Such an agreement does not exist at the present time—other than the one dealing with the administration of the GST in Quebec.

Finance committee  It is up to the government to decide whether or not it wants to enter into this kind of agreement with the province.

Finance committee  That is not what I said. I said that the first condition—

Finance committee  The problem is that your question is hypothetical. The fact is that there is no agreement in place with the Government of Quebec at the present time. If there were to be an agreement, we would have to determine whether it can be brought into that section of the legislation that deals with fiscal arrangements between the federal government and the provinces—in other words, whether it meets the conditions of that part of the legislation.

Finance committee  The agreements contemplated under this part of the bill provide for a common tax base, a tax collected under federal legislation, federal administration of the tax and the application of the income allocation method currently used by the three Atlantic provinces, Ontario and British Columbia.

Finance committee  I was responsible for drafting. I supervised a group that drafted the bill.

Finance committee  Theoretically—and that is what you're asking—this bill allows any other province that signs an agreement similar to the one in Ontario and British Columbia to join the system and become one of the provinces participating in the regime created by this bill. However, in order for that to happen, there must be an agreement pursuant to subsection 8.3(1) of the Federal-Provincial Fiscal Arrangements Act.

Finance committee  My name is Pierre Mercille and I am chief of GST Legislation at the Sales Tax Division.