News and event information for Williams Lake, BC - as it happens.

Dear Editor, 

From years as a Mayor and the past year as an MLA, my priority has always been to put people before politics. I enjoy working for and helping my constituents, but I could definitely do without all the political antics and games that creep into my job. A case in point is a recent letter by NDP MLA Bob Simpson challenging me to debate him on the Harmonized Sales Tax. 

Mr. Simpson and I face each other day after day in the BC Legislature. He provides his daily objections to our government’s sound policies and I do my part in defending them. The Harmonized Sales Tax is good, responsible policy and I stand 100% in support of our effort to enhance our economic competiveness and to stimulate job growth. But, it appears that isn’t enough to satisfy Mr. Simpson’s ongoing obsession with refighting the last election and ensuring I am defeated in the next election. 

I will take this opportunity to state yet once again that during the past provincial election, I had never even heard the term “HST”.  Since taking office and being tasked with enhancing our economy, we have been exploring further options and strategies to help our province. In that vein, I have learned all the facts on the HST and, quite frankly, if the election were still going on right now, the HST would be an excellent issue to promote. My campaign was about keeping B.C. strong and the HST is an invaluable tool in that regard. 

What Mr. Simpson continually fails to understand is that we are not voting to adopt the HST. That has already been done by the federal government. Rather, we are currently moving to repeal the 7% PST legislation….that is what the debate is all about.  I suppose if Mr. Simpson paid more attention to the extensive Legislature debates on the matter, he might realize the glaring error in his politically-motivated, highly charged challenge to me. 

Mr. Simpson clearly does not understand that this is good public policy that will encourage economic growth in our local resource-based industries. For example, when a logging truck owner operator buys a new piece of equipment, he currently pays GST & PST (5%+ 7% =12%), but can only recover the GST portion.  When the HST takes effect, however, that truck owner will now be able to get back the full HST amount (12%). 

In terms of wasting time repeating my debates with Mr. Simpson yet again, it shocks me that he doesn’t seem to have the same busy schedule that takes up every moment of my time at home in the constituency. As our duties require us to be in Victoria for most of the time, my schedule in the constituency is very important to me and I prioritize those precious hours by meeting directly with constituents and working to solve their problems. Many involve case files that were neglected in previous years by my predecessor and, as a result, require a lot of work. My weekends in the constituency are for my constituents, not for partaking in silly political games with Bob Simpson and the NDP. They may have the time for that, but I and my constituents do not. 

Donna Barnett
MLA, Cariboo-Chilcotin

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