I totally agree with Brad Thorlakson’s letter that the right thing to do with the HST is to vote no to retain the tax. Abolishing the tax will simply reduce business confidence and drive investment – and therefore jobs – to other provinces.
The movement to abolish the tax is guilty of not thinking through the consequences of its recommendations.
The pages of this paper are filled with calls for more government services – be it emergency beds in the hospital, better public transit and roads, more high school teachers, more wardens in our provincial parks or better traffic policing to reduce speeding and accidents. If we cancel the tax, business investment may be slowed and the province will have to pay back a huge credit to the federal government.
Government services are paid for by taxes. It’s that simple. Pay less taxes, see our services get cut.
I suggest those voting to abolish the tax need to think through how they will feel the next time they need a hospital bed and are turned away.
Let’s get with it, everyone.
There is no free lunch.
Ritchie Leslie, Vernon
