Thank you, Mr. Chairman. I've got a number of things that I wanted to talk about with Bill 20 and some bells going off. Bells have been going off in my head for awhile in regard to this bill and why we're here today to discuss it. I'm going to ask the Minister some pretty pointed questions today. I guess first of all I'd like to know why, I guess the big question for me is, if we went on the increase from 12 percent to 14 percent in 2004-2005 and the level of the grant had been fixed in federal legislation for 2004-05 and 2005-06, why did we have to wait two years for the government to wake up and realize that other provinces were lowering their rates, we weren't being competitive and why did we have to wait two years? Why wasn't this done last year? That's the big question that I have. Why didn't the Finance Minister let us know last year that we weren't competitive and that it was impacting us? Why did we have to wait two years? That's the big question, and who knows how much money it's cost us. Thank you, Mr. Chairman.
David Ramsay on Item 16: Consideration In Committee Of The Whole Of Bills And Other Matters
In the Legislative Assembly on February 28th, 2006. See this statement in context.
Item 16: Consideration In Committee Of The Whole Of Bills And Other Matters
Item 16: Consideration In Committee Of The Whole Of Bills And Other Matters
February 27th, 2006
Page 1449
See context to find out what was said next.