To the Editor,
Re: HST referendum rejected greed, not tax itself, Letters, Sept. 1.
While many of the points Terrance Wagstaff made are accurate, a couple need clarifying.
Harmonized sales tax or not will make no difference to the employment picture in Nanaimo.
Until there is a bridge joining the Island to the mainland, or a major growth in the mining or the forestry industries, there is not a large enough population to justify high-tech, large-scale manufacturing or even major construction jobs.
As for being revenue neutral, that doesn’t work. We will be faced with cuts to programs or increases to the PST or other taxes.
Vancouver Island’s population is growing larger in the over-55 age group, and shrinking in the critical 18 to 40 age group. And seniors want more medicare, more senior facilities subsidized by the government and very few changes.
Longtime Islanders seem to want the isolation that being on the Island brings. It also brings added cost for all goods and services.
Let’s get off the HST/PST-GST horse, which doesn’t do anyone any good, and talk about joining the rest of B.C. with a permanent road.
J. Sharpe
Nanaimo
