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Ottawa, December 13, 1996
1996-098
Finance Minister Responds to Quebec's Claim
Quebec does not qualify for adjustment assistance for harmonizing its sales tax with the GST, Finance Minister Paul Martin said today in response to a renewed claim for assistance by Quebec Finance Minister Bernard Landry.
"The adjustment assistance formula is designed to help any harmonizing provinces which lose money beyond a specified threshold. This was not the case for Quebec -- nor would it be for Ontario, Alberta and British Columbia," Mr Martin said.
"Quebec chose to only partially harmonize its sales tax with the GST in 1990. Even if Quebec had fully harmonized, they still would not have been eligible for adjustment assistance," he said.
Mr. Martin explained that he has reviewed Quebec's assistance claim over the past six months, including their analysis provided last week. "The bottom line is that Quebec would not have incurred losses that would have qualified it for adjustment assistance," he added.
With regard to Quebec's complaint that partial harmonization has put the province's businesses at a competitive disadvantage to businesses in fully harmonized provinces, Mr. Martin said: "Quebec made the decision to only partially harmonize. They can fully harmonize any time they want."
He stated further: "The decision to partially harmonize allowed Quebec to take in vastly more revenues than they would have otherwise received by completely harmonizing or not harmonizing at all. I cannot understand why Quebec continues to argue that it should be compensated for a financial windfall in the billions of dollars."
Taking issue with Quebec's claim that it has not received all relevant information about harmonizing provinces, Mr. Martin said: "We have provided Quebec with all the information used in calculating the assistance for harmonizing Atlantic provinces. This information was given to Quebec as soon as we received permission from the Atlantic provinces to share these confidential data."
He added: "It is regrettable that Quebec continues to pursue the issue of adjustment assistance after we have clearly demonstrated that the province is not eligible."
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For further information:
Nathalie Gauthier
Press Secretary to the Minister of Finance
(613) 996-7861
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| Last Updated: 2004-03-21 |
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