Getting rid of HST bad for business: Expert
Posted August 26, 2011 1:10 pm.
This article is more than 5 years old.
VANCOUVER (NEWS1130) – An SFU researcher says doing away with the HST will ultimately be a disadvantage for BC businesses and potentially a big disadvantage for the economy as a whole.
Nathaniel Payne at SFU’s Beedie School of Business says virtually all economic analyses indicate the HST increases economic growth, productivity, and quality of jobs. He believes this decision raises a lot of questions for the economy and the future direction of BC.
Payne says consumers who were swayed by the anti-HST campaign “may be fooling themselves, because ultimately the dollars have to come from somewhere.”
He adds some consumers may be paying less in the short term, but there “were significant benefits in external investment in BC.”
Canadian Taxpayers Federation also hopes for PST improvements
Jordan Bateman with the Canadian Taxpayers Federation says Finance Minister Kevin Falcon should “look for ways to capture some of the efficiencies that the HST system brought in” such as a single tax collector.
“There’s no reason why there has to be a provincial PST office set up, if there can be some negotiations with the federal government about collecting it through the federal tax collector.”
The Canadian Federation of Independent Business says the government should focus on a smooth and clearly-communicated transition back to the PST and GST. The lobby group’s Shachi Kurl says most of its small business members viewed the PST at “the bane of their regulatory existence.”
