BC NDP

VICTORIA - B.C. Liberal finance minister Colin Hansen must produce evidence to back up his claim that the new HST will be ‘revenue neutral', New Democrat finance critic Bruce Ralston said today.

"Not only did the B.C. Liberals mislead the public about their plans during the election campaign, but the only published study on the impact of the HST for B.C. says it will be a tax grab worth billions of dollars a year," said Ralston.

Ralston pointed to a study from the C.D. Howe Institute that finds that the HST would mean an extra $4 billion in revenue from taxes over three years. The C.D. Howe Institute states that B.C. "would raise more revenue if they applied an HST with the same base as the GST at the province's current rate of seven per cent."

"The finance minister has not been able to point to any evidence to back up his claim that this tax will be revenue neutral. If he has any studies that show this tax will be actually be good for British Columbians, Colin Hansen should make them public," said Ralston.

The Campbell government has not released any information on how the new Harmonized Sales Tax will hit industries like homebuilding, foodservices and tourism, although the restaurant industry estimates it will cost their members $750 million a year in lost sales.

"Is the minister really asking British Columbians to just accept this on faith? They haven't released a single shred of paper to support their position. Families and small businesses have every right to be concerned that this new tax will hit them hard," said Ralston.

Ralston went on to note that the minister's comparisons of the new B.C. tax with the impact of the HST in other provinces are misleading.

"When they brought in the HST in the Maritimes, the combined new tax rate actually went down. So for the finance minister to try to tell families that the experience here in B.C. will be the same is completely misleading," said Ralston.

Carole James and the New Democrats have launched a petition to stop the HST, which is at http://www.bcndp.ca/hstpetition.

Under the Campbell government, B.C. has had the worst rate of full-time job losses, the second-worst performing economy, and the highest level of child poverty in the country.

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The C.D. Howe study is available at http://www.cdhowe.org/pdf/ebrief_55.pdf