Editor:
Buying my daily newspaper now costs me an additional $60 per year thanks to the HST.
Ditto for the coffee to go with it — that’s $120 extra annually for these minor purchases.
Purchases of labour and other services previously exempt under the PST: veterinary, haircuts, real estate commissions, gym memberships, entertainment tickets, restaurant meals, bicycles, etc. add considerably to the cost of living, and dying, since funerals are now costing seven per cent more under HST.
Buying a vehicle privately now costs an additional five per cent: the GST portion of HST now applicable to the sale.
The deceptive advertisements of the government fail to mention that the reduced HST will still apply to many more goods and services than the PST — even if the promise is kept three years hence.
We were promised reductions in prices to reflect the savings of businesses.
This is laughable.
This bogus “trickle-down theory” was espoused by no less paragons of honesty than Ronald Reagan and Brian Mulroney, when promoting economic theories, including the so-called Free Trade Agreement (a perusal of the history of the softwood lumber duties imposed by the U.S.puts lie to the theory of free trade).
I urge my fellow citizens to take the rare opportunity to partake in direct democracy and vote yes in the HST referendum, to reduce the tax grab foisted on the populace.
This opportunity is possible because 700,000 B.C. residents signed the anti HST petition.
Honour their efforts by returning your ballot forthwith — the deadline for receipt at Elections B.C. is Friday, Aug. 5 if mailed, but ballots can be dropped off at Service B.C. — government agent office (the White House) on Borland Street until 4:25 p.m. Friday, Aug. 5.
John Pickford
Williams Lake