I just wanted to take the time to present the results of the decision to those that thought it was a novel idea to abolish the HST.
All we hear in the news and our papers is how much social programs, education, health care, transportation and every other industry, including small business is suffering just as a result of lack of funding and government assistance. It seems that everyone just expects these services and feels some form of entitlement from our government to provide funding for everyone and everything.
Let me ask you this. How did all of you who voted to abolish the HST think you were going to achieve this funding? How did you assume that the health care crises and long waiting lists to receive treatment were going to be resolved? How did you think our teachers who have greater responsibility to our children and who face overcrowded classrooms were going to get funding? Who is going to pay back the federal government for your inability to understand what exactly you voted to abolish.
I hope all of you who voted to abolish the HST never get sick and have to wait three months to a year for surgery or treatment. I certainly hope you do not have children looking for and requiring a student loan to achieve a post-secondary education. I hope that you forever have potholes in your streets that never get fixed so that you might have saved $3 on your last dining-out experience.
The sad part is that all small business suffers as a result. And as such, all consumers pay more. The unfortunate reality is that this has caused a slowdown in sales for contractors, as people have all decided to wait a few years to do those renovations or not to get that new rood they need, or wait to build that new deck. The reason being that people are waiting a year and a half for the HST to go away before they spend their money. The only thing this has created is the uprise of the local hack who will do these jobs for cash because they have no overhead, like insurance, CPP and EI contributions.
I am appalled at the notion that you all seem to think that you will pay less taxes. The government is re-instating the old system of GST and PST soon and guess what? Nothing about how you pay your taxes will differ from what you are doing now except the fact that it will cost every business and government agency more money to process these taxes and tax remittances as two separate entities. If you think that business will not apply to have a PST number (and charge you the PST), in order to retain the tax write-offs they receive, think again. In order to allow these small businesses to spend their money to continue to stimulate the economy (buying trucks, new equipment or benefit packages for employees), these companies rely on these tax incentives. Who do you think is going to pay those additional fees as a direct result of increased accounting and processing fees to these businesses? That’s right, it’s you. Next time please try to review and become educated before you vote.
Chase D’Angelo
Vernon
