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

In last week’s Budget Speech the Minister of Finance claimed HST would be used to fund health care. This is the latest, and quite frankly most absurd, rationalization of why the Liberal’s are bringing in the HST.

First, recall that the HST was not part of the Liberal’s 2009 election platform. The opposite was true, as there was an explicit commitment in their platform that, if elected to a third term, the Liberal’s would not implement the HST.

After the election, when the government announced it would bring in the HST, the reason given was that Ontario was implementing it so BC had to as well in order to remain competitive with that province. However, when it was pointed out that Ontario had consulted with the public about the proposed tax, and that our closest neighbor provinces had all rejected the HST after studying it carefully, the Liberal’s quickly dropped the Ontario excuse and moved on to revenue neutrality and job creation as the reason the tax had to be brought in.

When the Tourism and Restaurant Associations presented their studies showing they will lose tens of thousands of jobs directly as a result of the HST, the government then moved on to how HST was the best thing they could do to ensure they protected “take home pay.”

Of course, the Liberal’s couldn’t explain how an almost $2 billion tax transfer from corporations to individuals was good for take home pay when it would increase the consumer tax burden (up to $2000/yr by some estimates).

Since the Ontario, job creation and take home pay arguments all fell flat, the Finance Minister tried his absurd contention in the Budget Speech that HST would fund health care. Of course it will, just like PST contributes to Health Care now. In fact, PST contributes $113 million more to government revenues than the HST will, so if health care funding really is the issue then we should stick with the PST.

The health care argument for HST shows how little regard this government has for the intelligence of the electorate. Instead of rationalizing the HST with absurd claims about how it will fund health care or create jobs, the Liberals should simply delay implementation and consult with the people of BC directly and fully.

That’s the only way they will get informed consent – which is, ideally, how democracy is supposed to work. 

Bob Simpson
MLA Cariboo North
Quesnel, BC

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