Editor:
Re: Wilfred Pederson’s letter to the editor, “Donna Barnett needs to get the facts,” in the Tuesday, July 26 issue of the Tribune.
Face the facts.
The Globe and Mail HST poll showed that 57 per cent of B.C. taxpayers want to keep the HST and 43 per cent of B.C. taxpayers want to get rid of the HST.
Currently 18 million Canadian taxpayers are now paying HST in the provinces that have the HST.
Quebec is now negotiating with the federal government to bring in the HST.
The federal government will give the province of Quebec $2.2 billion for adopting the HST.
This will add another seven million HST taxpayers to a total of 25 million.
Bill VanderZalm’s protest HST petition of 557,383 (as per final count total from Elections B.C), not the propaganda total of 700,000 which had disqualified signatures, is no match to the 25 million Canadian taxpayers who are paying the HST.
B.C. has the lowest HST rate in Canada at 12 per cent and Nova Scotia, with an NDP government, has the highest HST rate in Canada at 15 per cent.
If the upcoming HST vote passes to stay in B.C., B.C. will still have the lowest HST rate in Canada.
B.C. has been the only province in Canada that has gone to the streets protesting like a Third-World nation, creating a good laugh to the rest of the Canadian taxpayers, who just sit back, and pay the tax.
They realize that all governments, regardless of political party, will collect taxes in one shape, form, or another.
In B.C. there is fact and fiction.
Fact is the B.C. Liberal government and the 25 million Canadian taxpayers. Fiction is the NDP, Bill VanderZalm, and Jim SinClair.
Joe Sawchuk
Duncan, B.C.