Thank you, Mr. Chairman. I concur with the report of the Standing Committee on Finance and all of the comments which are raised in the report. I raised some of those concerns which are incorporated in this particular report. However, Mr. Chairman, I was not too happy with the process which we used. From the outset, when the Minister first introduced the Payroll Tax Act, which our committee reported on, we made a number of recommendations and the Minister did follow out the recommendations of the Standing Committee on Finance.
Members on this side of the House and that side of the House will recall that when we were discussing how many sessions we should have, I raised the issue and I indicated at that time that we should have a spring session because I knew we were going to get into this problem. I knew people were going to start complaining about the process that the government has used. For that reason, I strongly recommended to them that we should have a spring session, but nobody on this side of the House or that side of the House suggested that we should have a spring session. They all said, no, we are not going to have any session at all. The end of this session is it. We are not coming back during the spring and the next time we will see each other is in the fall. Some Members on this side of the House are saying the process that the government used to date was not a good one. I agree with them. That is why I raised it even before we got into this mess. Nobody raised it at the time that I suggested that we should have a spring session. We have had a spring session for the last three years. Why can we not have a spring session to deal with this? I knew we were going to get into this dilemma.
The government has suggested that they want to incorporate this effective July 1. For that reason, I said it is not going to be enough time to deal with this, we will need more time, but because Members of this House decided not to hold a spring session the government had no choice but to bring in the payroll tax before we conclude today. I am kind of appalled to hear Members on this side of the House suggesting that they are disappointed with the process that has been used. I realize it was not a good process but you have got to understand the government's dilemma. I am not particularly happy with the way the payroll tax in its present form but when the vote has to come down, Mr. Chairman, I will not oppose it, but I will not support it either. Thank you. I just wanted to make those comments so that the public know that the issue was raised that a lot of Members in this House elected not to hold a spring session to deal with this issue. Thank you.