Finance committee  That's a good question. Any significant increase in the cost of books is going to have an impact on sales, of course. If we reduce the price of books by that remaining 6% GST, that should incrementally begin to increase the unit sales of books across the country. Yes, absolutely.

Finance committee  That's a very good question, actually. Thank you for that. I think we can see by the increased volumes and traffic into bookstores and into libraries across the country that the health of the mind is just as important as the health of the body. For instance, in Edmonton and Calgary, the major public libraries are reporting significant increases in visits to the library, and it's not to use the Internet cafés, specifically, or the Internet terminals, it is to borrow books; it is to read.

Finance committee  Strictly from my point of view, of course, it would make more sense to eliminate the GST on books. I think about the impact on literacy. This kind of a tax seems to be counterintuitive, when you consider that a tax on reading is a tax on literacy. The illiteracy rate in this country costs us a tremendous amount in terms of the costs of social services and for our economy as a whole.

Finance committee  That's correct.

Finance committee  That's a good question, except that books aren't taxable anywhere, and there hasn't been any way to measure any change in sales based on the change in tax regime. I'm not sure exactly the root of your question. The only addition has been federal tax. There's never been a provincial tax on books, so the impact has been presumably uniform across the country.

Finance committee  That's right, and that has remained the case.

Finance committee  Well, I can tell you about the reverse situation. In those provinces where HST is in effect, briefly, books with additional components, textbooks particularly, on campuses of Nova Scotia, New Brunswick, and Newfoundland, books that carried a CD-ROM component or an online access code for additional information but that were primarily books, were briefly subject to the full HST.

Finance committee  Mr. Pallister and distinguished members of the finance committee, good morning. My name is Steve Budnarchuk, and I am the president of the Canadian Booksellers Association, also known as the CBA. I'm also here before the committee as a long-time member of the organization and as the owner and operator of Audrey's Books, in Edmonton, a local bookstore.