Many people in British Columbia feel both dismayed and betrayed by the HST. It is a $2 billion shift in hidden sales taxes from business to consumers done by a government who said sales tax harmonization was not on the radar screen during the most recent election. True, government reduced income taxes to soften the blow of the tax shift, but meanwhile, it increased other taxes. If government cuts one tax then raises another, people are no better off. If the government wants to honestly claim families will be better off with the HST, it must get rid of the other taxes and reduce the overall HST burden.
