Vote YES to KILL the HST

The general corporate income tax rate would increase to 12 per cent from the current 10 per cent on Jan. 1, 2012.

It's a lie to say citizens $5.3 billion, corporations $0....

If HST stays, Corporate tax will increase 2% while personal tax will decrease 2%.

Ok, so what will the dollar amount of that 2% corporate tax increase be?

Even with the HST reduced by 2%, I (we?) continue to pay 5% more for bikes and bike related expenses, ski passes, bike park passes, fitness passes, movie passes, restaurants and on and on then we did under the PST.

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If we go back to the old PST/GST system. What makes you think the previously PST exempt items, would go back to being PST excempt. That's is just an assumption that you are making. Nobody has actually said it would.

And what's wrong with 5% increase in tax on bikes and bike related expenses, ski passes, bike park passes, fitness passes, movie passes, restaurants? It's tourism and it's about time our tax system adjusted to our tourism mixed economy.

Nobody has said that previous PST exempt items would lose that exemption either...

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kill kill kill hst

You guys are nuts to kill the HST. All that will happen is the government will have to waste another billion or so dollars changing everything back, and it will accomplish nothing. As others have said, things that were previously PST exempt will simply be reclassified as no longer. Or, even more things will be reclassified as PST taxable. Or/also we will pay more user fees. How about having to pay an extra $50 or so per doctor/dentist/optometrist/pharmacist visit? Or a $200 dollar road maintenance fee every time you renew your drivers license or insurance? I don't know why people consider killing a tax hike a victory. What the hell do you think pays for all the social services and infrastructure we all use and enjoy? The cost of everything goes up all the time and we need more tax revenue to pay for it all, just as we need pay raises to keep up to the cost of living. Would people fight as hard to cut pay raises for themselves I wonder? This is the most retarded argument I have ever heard. It's like saying we refuse to pay 12%...but we're OK with paying 7% plus 5%....and we're willing to waste untold millions in administration costs to revert back to the same thing.

well...to bad Campbells hide was worth jack krap

There's no friggin way I will vote to keep this unfair tax that was basically rammed up our asses by the Campbell government. Megadude you make a few good points about user fees. I wouldn't have a problem if I had the shuck up a 50 for a doctors visit. We pay a fee when we go to the optometrist and dentist. There are people who go to the doc every time they get a sniffle or a pimple on their ass, or to get a note for missing work. I'm not one of them. If we did have to pay a fee, people would only go when necessary. This in itself would shorten wait times etc. and probably overall improve our medical system.

As far as maintenance fees for our roads, that's already there, every time you buy a liter of gas. That's fair the more you choose to drive the more of your tax money goes to road maintenance.

At least 75% of my income goes into taxes right now in one form or another. I'm voting to kill the HST!

I know that we already pay user fees for things, my point is that we will just pay more. Nobody is more pissed than me that we pay a shitload of tax already, and it still isn't enough to keep our country running, mostly due to incompetent politicians and mind boggling waste and inefficiency. But that doesn't change the reality that the costs of everything keep going up and we have to meet it somehow, and the money has to come from somewhere. If not taxes, then through user fees and drastic cutbacks in schools, health care and hospitals and government jobs in social services. In other words a lot of lay-offs and job deletion like in the early 90's when all the budget slashing and privitization happened. A lot of that was not for the good I think you will agree. And the user fee issue...that will hit the working, middle class, (who already bear the brunt) the most. If the cost of driving becomes much more prohibitive, it will squeeze out a lot more low income people who can barely afford it as is, which means less access to jobs for them, less cars on the road, fewer drivers...thus even more of a burden to be passed on to those who do drive etc. People with no income don't drive so they won't be a source of revenue. Also, for health care visits and the like, low/no income people won't pay because they have no money, so it will be subsidized by guess who? And yes, I know, it already is like that....but again it will be a case of even more user fees, and I guarantee that people will bitch a lot more about that then an overall tax increase of a percent or two. In this country, we are slowly sliding towards becoming like the USA, where basically there are no social services, the infrastructure is falling to pieces and you're on your own should you ever need health care, unless you're OK with a $700 a month medical plan premium for a single adult. But hey, the gas is cheap and you can get a can of snuff for three bucks. I am a die hard socialist, and socialism is what made Canada what it is...universal health care, great social services, everybody contributes to a system that everybody benefits from. The downside of course is heavier taxation, but I still think it's the better system, and I fear that we're steadily losing that. Again, look to the USA, where privitization and hands-off government are the rule. When the government there started ceding control to big industry, virtually all of the good union jobs in manufacturing, in the automotive industry etc vanished within a generation, basically eliminating a vast middle class that was a big source of government revenue. Now, it's too late for them...they have huge unemployment, you don't dare try to raise taxes for fear of scaring off more business and being voted out by your constituency, and yet, more money is still needed, which is why the USA is in about a $15 TRILLION deficit and treading water. I don't want Canada to end up the same way. Socialism has worked for us and we should stay the course. We just need a more efficient government to use our tax money more wisely, we don't need to cut taxes. Sorry for the rant, but is my point more clear now?

If you care about our local tourism economy this is a good read - http://bit.ly/jnnFrF

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