hey, i didn't find what you were looking for, but university libraries should have copies of all the transcripts of parliamentary debates. gst replaced some manufacturer's tax on jan 1, 1991, so it probably was debated in 1990, perhaps 1989. sorry for no more help than that. i think that income tax was supposed to be a temporary tax, too... some sort of war measures. maybe you're confusing the two (tho they're aeons apart...). given that its a mulroney tax replacing a manufacturer's tax, it probably was supposed to be permanent; whereas if it had been just a new tax to pay down the debt it would have been a new tax rather than replacing another tax. just a personal opinion tho. good luck!

   

Thanks for replying. I don't live close to a university but perhaps our library might be of help. No, I'm not confusing the income tax introduced in 1917 to help pay for the war efforts. It was the 13% FST manufacturer's tax that was scrapped when the GST was brought in. There are other people on the internet that remember what I am talking about but I want to find solid government proof. So far, no real luck.....why doesn't that surprise me? It's not the kind of thing they want to have easily available to the public.

   

im4canada: I remember what you're talking about. I just discussed this on the weekend. It was a "temporary tax" introduced to eliminate the manufacturing tax. Make the masses pay the bill instead of the manufacturers. ANd it makes so much money because it gets charged on the same products repeatedly, has that compounding effect. ANyways, I'm sure it was supposed to be a temporary tax. But then again, aren't they all? No one ever really imposes a "permanent" tax.