Madam Speaker, I, too, rise to express concerns about the new proposed water and sewage subsidy policy. Madam Speaker, this is a budget session and it's in its last few days. This is a time for the government to reveal its intentions as far as taxes and its proposed main estimates for the coming year. We received fairly good news in the Finance Minister's budget speech, that apart from certain classes of corporate taxes there would be no new taxes. However, in the dying days of the session, after the Municipal and Community Affairs budget had been presented with not, as I recall, a word about this major new policy change being proposed, we received major changes in water and sewer subsidy policies.
Madam Speaker, this is, as I see it, a tax on private home owners and a tax on small business, which is going to hit people in our smallest communities very hard. I do not know why it was dropped on us in the last few days of the session, seeming as an afterthought. I think the timing is rotten, Madam Speaker. The consultation process was poor, and before I will agree to see this subsidy imposed there is going to have to be a lot more careful examination of this policy, its implications, its financial implications, its economic implications, and I think a lot more time is going to have to be taken to make sure these radical changes are done properly and in a manner that is sensitive to our fragile, developing economy. Thank you, Madam Speaker.
---Applause