Dear Editor:
As Christy Clark and her new cabinet take power, the process of spending our hard-earned tax dollars fighting against the average British Columbian citizen on a referendum on the HST begins. Between now and June 24th our government will spend a great deal of time, money, and energy telling us how stupid we are and how we just dont understand the benefits of the tax.
The people of British Columbia understand the HST perfectly fine. The HST is a consumptive tax which has increased the price of goods and services to the average British Columbian (including low income families and seniors). It has added a significant amount of taxation to things like restaurant meals, tourism activities, construction/home renovation, and real estate, while decreasing the amount of tax on liquor and giving input tax credits or tax refunds to businesses especially those that purchase a lot of equipment. The HST has also added costs to the operations of local governments, health authorities, and school boards, which results in even more taxation to what is only one tax payer.
While our B.C. Liberal government will soon spend our money to tell us how dumb we are (which I guess we were for electing them several times), it is important to note that the B.C. NDP with defacto leader party president honest Moe (who is taking a comfortable yet initially secret salary from several large B.C. unions), will be quick to bash the implementation of the HST, but will never say they will remove the tax. Truth be told, an NDP government would be more likely to have the tax increased than eliminated.
The good news: there is another option. There is one party that will get rid of the HST, and that wont spend your tax dollars fighting you. This party was born out of the HST petition process with people from all sides of the political spectrum looking for something that is logical, reasonable, honest, centrist, populist, and fresh. B.C. First is that party.
Gerry Taft
Invermere
