HST Anniversary
Posted Jul 1, 2011 06:27:02 AM.
This article is more than 5 years old.
The Harmonized Sales Tax took effect in Ontario one year ago today, marrying the GST with the old Ontario sales tax.
Opposition parties at Queen’s Park are still arguing about it.
Finance Minister, Dwight Duncan tells 570’s Jeff Allan, he believes things have actually improved since implementing the combined tax.
He says the tax plan as a whole has worked. Since implementing the HST, he says that tax rates have been cut on the first $37,000 of personal income. Duncan also says that Ontario now has the lowest tax rate in the country. As well, the Conservative Government gave the McGuinty Liberals 4 billion dollars to do this, which was given back to Ontarians in the form of transition cheques.
PC Finance Critic, Lisa Macleod disagrees. She says July first will not only be remembered as Canada day, but also “Tax Tyranny Day”.
She says whether you agree or disagree with the combined tax, it’s here to stay. Any politician that wants to get rid of the HST is going to have to pay back the federal governement the $4 billion it gave for the tax transition.
Duncan says we have also created 74,000 new jobs since implementing the harmonized tax. He adds that Jack Mintz, the Conservatives expert during pre-budget hearings, says that the tax plan over the next nine years will create some 900,000 net new jobs. As well, Duncan says according to RBC our economy will grow faster than it did in 2000.
Macleod says there were better ways of dealing with it. For instance the McGuinty Liberals could have reduced the rate when they brought in the HST like most other provinces did by three or four percentage points to make it revenue neutral.
She says the next eight or nine years will probably look good for Ontario, but only if the government changes hands.
Duncan says no matter who you vote for in the October election, HST is not going anywhere. Both the Conservatives Tim Hudak and the NDP’s Andrea Horwath despite initially campaigning against the tax, have announced they will be keeping it.
