Editor:
Re: They convinced us to say ‘yes,’ June 15.
It just came to my attention that the ads we are hearing on the pro-HST side are not truthful.
We are all being deceived on many points in the ad campaigns to convince us to keep the HST, but the one that heads the list for me is that their so-called promise to drop the HST to 10 per cent won’t happen until 2014.
Check out their own website – www.hstinbc.ca. A lot can happen between now and then.
For more information about this and other areas where they are misinforming the public, go to www.fighthst.com and click on “Top 7 HST Myths – Part III.”
Then, “decide for yourself.”
Colleen Pentecost, White Rock
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Re: Getting to ‘no,’ June 24 letters.
Letter-writer Randy Elliston says in his letter regarding HST:
“Your $6,000 in HST means you had to spend $50,000. $50,000 x 12% = $6,000 of HST. If HST is reduced to 10 per cent then $50,000 x 10% = $5,000, a savings of $1,000, not $120…”
However, Elliston forgot to point out that if you spent $50,000 prior to HST, chances are pretty darned good that the entire $50,000 was not subject to PST. I will be generous and say $30,000 was subject to the old PST: $30,000 x 6% = $1,800; $50,000 x 5%(GST) = $2500; $1,800 + $2,500 = $4,300.
Therefore, Mr. Elliston, using your calculations, the old GST/PST would mean you pay $4,300 – $700 less.
Don’t forget, the 10 per cent does not come into effect for three years, if at all!
One of the great features of the HST was that savings would be passed on to the consumer, who is after all, paying the additional tax. Have you noticed if anything has been reduced?
I will be voting ‘yes’ and keeping my $700.
Joan Rivett, Surrey
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Re: Take a hard look at your choices, June 22 column
Tom Fletcher’s column name, “BC Views,” suggests views that are antiquated – “Before Christ” – but his thinking is as modern as the early 20th century when Canada had minimal governmental support for people who were poor or homeless or unemployed.
Yet Fletcher’s views are part of a healthy public debate on the use of scarce taxpayer dollars, and his defence of the HST is laudable on strictly economic grounds.
Opponents to the HST worry about the social cost of shifting more of the tax burden away from businesses and onto individuals and families.
We are not wanting to “throw a $3-billion chair through the office window” but protest a sneaky government tax initiative that has added to our daily expenses.
Jim McMurtry, Surrey
