Dear Editor:
The HST is B.C.'s biggest direct tax shift onto seniors, families and small businesses and a gift of billions of dollars, in perpetuity, to large corporations. It is not creating the jobs as promised and savings made by corporate HST write-offs, en masse, are not being passed on to consumers as predicted.
We heard these same promises from the Conservative government in 1991, when the GST was introduced, and the corporate manufacturers' sales tax was eliminated. The result was a 10-year nuclear winter, as this was how long it took for the average Canadian family income to rebound to pre-GST levels.
If you vote to keep the HST, you agree to massive tax increases on the many goods and services that were PST exempt. A $1,000 purchase on a PST-exempt item would have amounted to a tax of $50 GST. The same purchase with HST today will cost you $120 in taxes, which is a whopping 120 per cent tax increase.
A look at who is behind this behemoth spoliation should tell you who the primary benefactors of the HST are: A group of large corporations and business groups who formed the Smart Tax Alliance and are spending unprecedented amounts of money to confuse and convince you to not cast your vote to extinguish the HST.
The B.C. Liberal government has run a parallel campaign and is spending millions of your tax dollars on very misleading ads with the same evasive spin.
There is no opposition group in this province with pockets deep enough to counter this massive coalition of deception - but there is you, the taxpayer.
If you vote "Yes" to repeal the HST, you send the message that you want a fair tax distribution system that favours all British Columbians.
Chuck Puchmayr, New Westminster
