The sky is not falling, and for those who are concerned the BC government will lose much needed tax revenues as the HST is being phased out, have no fear.
The 5 percent GST + the 7 percent PST will produce the same revenues as the 12 percent HST simply by applying the GST and the PST to the same items we pay the harmonized tax on today.
There is also no urgency developing a new tax system. We don’t have a serious revenue problem – we have a huge spending problem.
The BC Liberal government has been taxing and spending the province into a deep dark hole.
The Clark government should immediately put a moratorium on increases and new spending.
It should then reclaim control of all crown corporations where literally billions of dollars are being wasted.
Civil servants pensions, bonuses, severance and retirement packages must be brought back into line with the real world.
Use and abuse of overtime must be brought under control.
Harmonizing means centralizing, and the reason why the Federal government offered the province 1.5 billion dollars to sign onto the HST was because it would give the feds control of the tax.
For the Liberal government it was cool one and a half billion dollars cash, without having to go to the BC tax payers.
The tax system we had was fine except that the PST was applied at the end of the production line, representing an unnecessary cost and inconvenience to businesses.
By separating the two taxes the Province will now be able to pick and choose the goods and services that will be subject to the PST and it should continue to collect both taxes at the final point of sale.
Andy Thomsen
Summerland BC
