I indicated I would be back on the HST issue, and the recent rally once again sparked my attention. I was a little surprised after all the hoopla that there were no more than about 50 attending. I wanted to be there to hear if there were any concrete statements, or just I don’t like it. I could not attend because of other commitments and the press coverage did not give the details of what each speaker had to say. I am still not sold but I have some more information to digest, and it is as follows.

As I said in my last article the leading economists have said implementing the HST is the single biggest thing we can do to stimulate our economy, create jobs and attract investment.

We are told the HST eliminates embedded taxes along the “value chain” and replaces it with a single tax. I do know that there was a 12 per cent manufacturing tax on all clothing before the GST was introduced and that is now only five per cent under GST. The PST was added which is a tax on a tax. Six of the 10 provinces have, or are moving to, a value-added tax (VAT) but B.C. will have the lowest rate at 12 per cent. The six provinces that have agreed to the HST cover over 90 per cent of the population of Canada.

Low-income individuals and families will receive the B.C. HST credit and that will be a benefit to 1.1 million people.

Contrary to popular belief, the provincial portion of the HST will not be on residential energy including oil, electricity, natural gas, and propane use to heat or power homes. Residential rent and basic groceries will also be exempt. This does not include the $1.6 billion incentive from the Feds to help spiraling costs in health nor the $30 million in anticipated administration savings (yet to be proven).

More than 130 countries have moved to this type of taxation including 29 of 30 Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development countries. I have also heard from one local accountant at Rotary on the HST and another will be speaking at the Chamber meeting today.

So still I’m not totally convinced but am leaning a little more.