HST fix aimed at families, Premier Clark says
Proposed changes to be announced Wednesday
VICTORIA — British Columbians will Wednesday morning learn what changes the B.C. government plans to unveil in its effort to help save the harmonized sales tax ahead of next month's provincewide referendum.
"We are going to do our level best to make sure that we are addressing the concerns that people have," Premier Christy Clark said Tuesday, adding the changes her government will announce Wednesday result from a series of telephone-town halls and other forms of public consultation.
"We're thinking about all the things people said, thinking about which things were said most commonly and then trying to figure out which among them are easiest and most possible for us," she added.
More than 276,000 British Columbians participated recently in 11 HST telephone-town hall meetings. More than 5,100 people also made submissions directly to an online government survey.
Clark would not say exactly what her government was considering, though suggestions have ranged from rebate cheques to cutting a point from the 12-per-cent HST to finding a way to make more items exempt from the tax.
New Democratic Party leader Adrian Dix said Tuesday that nothing the government does today will change the HST into something he can support.
"I think the HST is a regressive tax, it will be a regressive tax after [Wednesday] and I think what the government should do is withdraw it," he said, adding anything announced today will be purely political.
"I don't think anyone believes this is anything more than a cynical effort to buy votes with public funds."
Earlier this month, Clark said her government's HST solutions would be "bold" and "smart", adding they would also allow the government to keep its promise to balance the budget by 2013.
On Tuesday, Clark also said the solutions would help address the increased costs the tax has meant for families.
"I came into office saying I want to support families, I want to make it a little bit easier for people to get ahead," she said.
"I'm hoping that is what people will see in the fixes that we bring forward for the HST."
An independent panel recently concluded the HST is costing the average B.C. family about an extra $350 per year more than the previous tax regime, which was split into the provincial sales tax and the federal goods and services tax. On Tuesday, Clark said one of her main goals has been finding a way to close that gap.
"I think people want to make sure that we are addressing the number that the independent panel put out saying that families are going to be affected on average by about $350 each," she said.
"I'm hoping people will like the fixes that we've proposed, and ultimately they are going to make the decision."
The HST referendum will be conducted by a mail-in ballot process that runs from June 13 to July 22. The government has promised to cancel the HST if a simple majority votes to do so.
"This is a government that said repeatedly that this [the HST] was the most important thing they could do for the economy," Dix said. "The only fix they're concerned with is their political fix. So they're going out and trying to fix it for the B.C. Liberal Party, not for the economy, not for the people of B.C."
Christy Clark will announce HST changes on Wednesday
發表於 2011-5-24 18:19
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