- CTF urges B.C. voters to vote No in the referendum
- The Harmonized Sales Tax has problems; the Provincial Sales Tax is worse
VANCOUVER, BC: The Canadian Taxpayers Federation (CTF) today urged B.C. taxpayers to vote No in the upcoming referendum that would extinguish the Harmonized Sales Tax (HST) and restore two taxes, the Goods and Services Tax (GST) and Provincial Sales Tax (PST).
“It’s no secret that the B.C. government botched the HST – it cost the Premier his job,” said CTF-British Columbia director Gregory Thomas. “But turning the clock back and reinstating the provincial sales tax is no solution at all for the HST problem.”
The Canadian Taxpayers Federation has repeatedly urged the government and the opposition to provide B.C. taxpayers with HST relief, in the form of a lower HST rate.
“When 700,000 people sign a petition to protest the HST, there’s a hidden message there,” said Thomas. “When people are asked to pay HST on a whole range of services where they never paid PST, and the rate doesn’t go down, they instinctively realize they’re getting a bad deal from the government.”
Thomas pointed to the Harper government’s successful GST reduction, from 5 to 7 per cent, as an example of politicians getting the message from the public about excessive taxation.
“Here in B.C., the government could have introduced the HST at a lower rate – instead they chose to create an expensive and confusing rat’s maze of exemptions, credits, and loopholes for special interests, and pay for it by charging ordinary taxpayers an exorbitant 7 per cent HST rate,” continued Thomas.
“Quebec politicians are begging Ottawa for the same deal we got in B.C. for adopting the HST - $1.6 billion in new federal money. The Premier of Ontario said his province will gain a competitive advantage if B.C. goes back to the PST,” said Thomas.
“No matter how badly the government handled the HST, the Provincial Sales Tax is a 63-year-old relic of the stone age. It’s a regressive, job-killing tax. No modern province, state, or country in 2011 would ever create a tax as bad as the PST,” said Thomas. “We should take advantage of this year’s referendum to kill this tax, once and for all. And B.C. politicians need to put aside their political games, get back to work, and come up with a fair, simple, straightforward tax that people can afford.”
