April 30, 2010
PROVINCE REPEALS PST ACT AS NDP MISLEAD PUBLIC

VANDERHOOF – The provincial government concluded debate and passed Bill 9 yesterday, an Act which repeals the Provincial Sales Tax, and allows it to be replaced with a Harmonized Sales Tax, effective July 1.

“We have seen a wide array of misinformation being spread by the NDP during debate on Bill 9,” says Nechako Lakes MLA John Rustad. “The most erroneous thing has been this idea that Bill 9 is a vote for or against the HST, and that is just plain wrong.”

“We have said from the beginning that the federal government in Ottawa already passed the HST legislation months ago that will bring the HST into effect,” adds Rustad. “Bill 9, in actuality, is purely a positive move forward to rid our province of an unproductive, unfair provincial sales tax.”

“Think about the long list of leading employers in our region, reputable economists, and the 130 countries that already have versions of a combined consumer tax, and they will all tell you that the HST is the single, most important step that a government can take to stimulate economic growth and job creation,” says Rustad. “We can only surmise that the NDP favor maintaining a PST plus GST system, even though it has been proven as a highly disruptive tax on investment and growth. The NDP record has been to vote against every single tax cut our government has implemented. The NDP’s opposition to the HST just adds to their inept reputation when it comes to the economy and taxes.”

For most of the month of April, the BC Legislature debated Bill 9, which repealed the PST. The opposition NDP argued against repealing the PST, demonstrating their lack of understanding of how  PST is charged multiple times in the production of many consumer items, with the consumer ultimately paying for every one of those times the 7% is charged. HST is paid once and only once.

Independent economists like Jon Kesselman of Simon Fraser University have clearly and definitively slammed the PST as inefficient, not equitable, and complicated.

Visit John’s website at www.johnrustadmla.bc.ca

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