I have canvassed my riding. I have gone to the hotels in my riding and there was a lot of emotion and a lot of criticism of this government when I tried to explain what was going on. In fact, in some cases I had to convince them not to shoot the messenger. It was not well received. In all, the hotel owners and motel owners in my riding spoke against it. They justified why they spoke against it. With the hotels in my riding, the occupancy by the tourists is very low. It is a small percentage. Who are the main users of those hotels in the riding I represent? It is mainly government employees and construction workers. The construction workers who are in the communities utilizing the hotels and occupying the rooms are working on government projects. So the percentage of occupancy by government dollars is a lot higher than we are being told.

In the riding I represent, almost all of the economic projects are paid for by the government. We have no real economic base. The oil and gas industry has not taken off yet. So this will be a flow-through tax. What will that result in? That will result in a higher cost of living because mostly communities that are average size or smaller will be taxing government people and construction workers.

Due to the location of Enterprise, of Kakisa and Fort Providence, which is only, in the case of Enterprise, half an hour away from Indian Cabins which has accommodations, I am sure the cost of a room per night would make a lot of people who are driving through reconsider whether they should stop on the south side of the border or bother to come across because the cost of the rooms are going to be a lot higher.

In the case of High Level, it is only three hours away from Fort Providence, so it is not a great distance. I think the location is going to be a factor in people making the decision on whether they want to come North.

The biggest issue I have with this tax is that in three years when our formula financing review will come up, there will be a claw back clause and that does not make sense to me. My colleague has done some quick math here and it results that out of every five dollars we collect, we will keep one dollar. I cannot justify that to the people of my riding and I cannot accept this tax as it stands. I will be voting against it, Mr. Speaker. Thank you.

-- Applause