ON Friday, Premier Christy Clark was asked whether she would bring in an HST or another form of value added tax. She initially denied it. But then she said:
“But the thing is though, we do know that the tax competitiveness panel came back with a recommendation for a value added tax, which is different. And so what I’ve said is look, we’ll be prepared to talk to the business community and British Columbians about different ways we can reach tax competitiveness, but it isn’t going to be an HST, we’ve been down that road, it ended badly, people didn’t like it. And when people talk so clearly to their governments, government should listen to them.” (video clip)
The NDP said that the only problem is that it’s not different. The HST was a valued added tax.
A value added tax would shift billions from corporations onto people, hitting the middle class and lower income people particularly hard. A value added tax would apply to a range of goods and services that are currently exempt from the PST regardless of whether it’s harmonized with the federal HST, said the NDP.
A new value added tax would cost the typical family over $1,000 a year. (Based on a married couple with one or more kids)
The corporations consulted on the Tax Competitiveness report referred to by Clark have donated $1.6 million to the BC Liberals since the HST was rejected by British Columbians.
The NDP had three questions for Christy Clark:
Why isn’t this in your platform?
After years of hiking fees on people to pay for giveaways for millionaires, why do you think BC families should pay $1,000 more a year?
After you heard British Columbians “talk so clearly to their government,” about the costs associated with the HST, why are you planning to do the exact same thing by a different name?