Gordo knew all about this sleezy move well before the May erection and so did his candidate who was running in this riding. I applaud city council for their move last night if it for real, Gordo was and is a sleeze bag who should be out of office and learning how to live when one goes from cheque to cheque and just making it each month. His dog and pony show which is only a few months away is something else your children and grand children will pay for for years to come and Canada will probably have five gold medals.
Just a comment on how things change.
The Bader-Meinhoff Gang would be a Facebook group. Che Guevara would be living above his Mom’s garage running a blog.
Patty Hearst would wear coke bottle glasses because her Dad would only buy her a 7" EEE netbook to run the SLA website…
I don’t believe “Gordos Candidate” was in Gordo’s confidence,you give him way to much credit
I think that the general idea to improve the PST is to streamline the tax to make it more efficient in collecting it and administering it. Funnily, the province stated in its news releases that the idea of the HST was: to get $1.6 Billion in a one-time cash payment to BC from the Feds and to make the tax more efficient to collect for businesses who would have to remit the separate taxes under the PST. Just seems silly really, because most accounting software programs these days allow for computerized calculation and remittances of the PST - really it is not that difficult to administer in its present form at all.
We shall see how it all shakes out.
I said this earlier, but it bears repeating. When the HST was introduced in Atlantic Canada, the rate was, in all cases, lower than the combined GST + PST.
I lived in Newfoundland at the time, and the HST rate almost 5% less than the previous GST + PST.
That’s why you didn’t see much opposition to HST in those provinces.
Unlike in BC, where the idea is to raise taxes.
The City of Prince Rupert raises its taxes to record levels, but doesn’t want the province to do so. Hypocrites. Do as we say, not as we do.
if HST isn’t implemented, how else will the government be able to maintain education and health care levels at what they currently are? Everyone on here complains about how not enough money is being spend on these services, but at the same time complain about increased taxes. You can’t have one without the other.
Create more jobs…then we will have no problems paying these stupid high taxes.
Or, how bout, we vote to take half of each politicians salary.
What was the rationale for the BC Liberals cutting taxes in 2001, to the point that it put the province into deficit? They had to cut education and health care to pay for those tax cuts.
What was the rationale then? Does that rationale not exist anymore?
You see what I’m getting at? Is the way to stimulate the economy to raise taxes or lower them? Pick one message and stick to it.
Have you forgotten the election already? Let me quote Herb Pond for you: “Higher tax is a job killer.” Of course Herb Pond was responsible for the the largest tax increases in Prince Rupert’s history. But maybe that’s my point.
I doubt that any City politician will lose support for opposing the HST. It’s a rather safe issue, given the current unpopularity of the new tax and how it was announced so soon after an election.
I hope, though, that our civic leaders will tear themselves away from their new-found cause as advocates for consumers’ rights and give some attention to potential impacts on the City finances that they are in charge of.
The mayor and council did indeed raise local property taxes, with little debate or misgivings as far as I could see. I do not recall any wringing of hands or mea culpas.
HST raises some questions that they will hopefully give attention to and comment on (outside of closed door meetings we should hope).
HST, it seems to me, may actually save the City some money. Municipalities, like schools and hospitals (collectively known in tax lingo as MUSH) do not claim Input Tax Credits (ITCs) like businesses, but they are eligible for rebates. Different paperwork, but the same result. Businesses and the MUSH sector get their GST back.
PST however is ‘embedded’ in purchases. There are no extra exemptions for municipalities. Like consumers and businesses they pay PST on most things. HST is intended to reduce businesses’ costs and thus help out the economy. Instead of paying PST, businesses will claim ITCs on HST just as they currently do on GST. In theory, they will be able to lower prices because they will pay less tax, but that remains to be seen. Exporters should be more competitive.
So the question is, will the City be able to claim rebates of the HST they pay, including the provincial portion that replaces the PST? There could be a savings.
Another issue is that the City collects a 2% Municipal and Regional District Tax which is tacked onto the 8% provincial Hotel Room Tax. However, the HST will replace the Hotel Room Tax. Will the City’s tax on hotel accommodation also be phased out? Considering that in 2008 the City collected $168,621 in revenue from that source, that strikes me as a question worth asking.
So don’t get me wrong - I’m as unhappy as anyone about paying HST on haircuts and other items that have been PST-exempt. I also think that charging HST on safety supplies, which have also been exempt, is outrageous.
Be that as it may, should the mayor and council not be giving top priority to how HST will impact the City’s finances, including how much they decide to collect in property taxes? There isn’t exactly a shortage of articulate critics of the HST these days.
Well first of all, the fact that the liberals cut taxes back in 2001 can’t be considered the only reason the province is in a deficit right now, considering the current worldwide economic crisis, unless you have forgotten about that? They also ran a surplus for years. And second of all, many things that were PST exempt, will still be exempt under HST.
"It is proposed that point-of-sale rebates (similar to PST exemptions) for the provincial portion of the BC HST be provided for a number of products including:
gasoline, diesel fuel, marine diesel fuel and aviation fuel including any biofuel components for motor vehicles, boats and aircraft
books
children- sized clothing and footwear
children’s car seats and car booster seats
diapers
feminine hygiene products
The proposed HST will also include:
A partial rebate of the provincial portion of the BC HST for new housing to ensure that purchasers of new homes up to $400,000 will bear no more tax than is embedded in new homes under the current PST system, while purchasers of homes above $400,000 will receive a flat rebate of about $20,000.
A refundable B.C. HST Credit of $230 per family member for individuals with income up to $20,000 and families with incomes up to $25,000, paid quarterly with the GST credit to help offset the impact of the tax on those with low incomes.
"
fin.gov.bc.ca/scp/hst/Highlights.html
do a little research and its easy to see that we won’t actually pay much more tax in the long road anyways.
[quote=“Krissy”]
Well first of all, the fact that the liberals cut taxes back in 2001 can’t be considered the only reason the province is in a deficit right now, considering the current worldwide economic crisis, unless you have forgotten about that? They also ran a surplus for years. And second of all, many things that were PST exempt, will still be exempt under HST.[/quote]
Nope, didn’t make a connection between 2001 and now, didn’t intend to. They cut taxes in 2001, and had to cut health and education to make up for it. That was a good thing, wasn’t it? Or was it a mistake?
The point was that the BC Liberals have always said that cutting taxes was good for the economy, and that raising taxes was bad for jobs. Has that changed?
Now they’re raising taxes in the middle of a recession. The exact opposite of what every other government seems to be doing.
The BC Liberals campaigned on cutting taxes. “Lower taxes for all citizens” actually means “higher taxes for all citizens” right?
Why did they cut taxes before? What was the rationale? Why are they raising taxes now?
Want to ease the protest Gordo?
DITCH THE HEALTH PREMIUMS
That would save businesses $54-$80 a month per employee and make one hell of a measurable difference to people who have to pay their own.
We’re the LAST province in Canada still charging them. You could make people believe that would make the HST ‘revenue neutral’…
and remember WACKY Bennet called a spade a spade. The PST was a “Hospital and Medical Services Tax” before they took to shoveling into general revenue.
Well they are getting 1.6 BILLION dollars from the federal government by doing this. Makes a hell of a lot of sense to me.
They’re raising taxes, they said they were going to lower them. You deny that?
They’re implementing the HST, when during the election that they were against the HST. You deny that too?
No doubt that helps, and I think that there are both pros and cons to the HST, but a one-shot payment from the feds is a pretty weak reason for adopting the tax.
Easy solution, cancel the olympics ,NOW
It’s a great thought but too late as they are way over budget as it is so whatever money the games bring in will offset only very minimally the overall cost. We, and are childrens’ children will be paying for 2 weeks of games from here on in. 
And now, they are worried there won’t be any snow… 
I can not wait to watch the games from the washroom at the Crest, my own personal urnil and TV. very anxious. Because that is what I hope they will turn out to be , the shit.
I never said that, I’m only saying that the HST isn’t as bad as everyone makes it seem. Sure, nobody likes paying more taxes, but that’s also why pretty much any party fighting an election isn’t going to say, “oh yeah, uhh, we are going to raise taxes if we get elected, so vote for us”. They had a lot of pressure on them from the federal government to follow the lead of the atlantic provinces in switching over to the HST. And it will save a lot of industries a lot of money in the long run. So what if you have to pay a bit extra for a haircut from now on, people aren’t going to stop getting haircuts because of a tax that will probably add a buck or two to the overall cost of one. And then there’s the people that complain about all the extra tax they will be paying when they buy a house for over 400 grand. Well I don’t think people have the right to complain about paying extra tax on their half a million or million dollar house, because if they can afford to buy a house that expensive, they sure as hell can afford to pay a bit extra in tax.