Former BC premier, Bill Vander Zalm says his Fight HST team has completed a thorough analysis of the BC government’s newly provided HST list that supposedly shows which items will be affected by HST and over 30 items are “missing in action.”
“We spent some time reviewing the list and have determined it is totally bogus,” he said in a statement released Sunday evening. “The government has, once again, deliberately tried to mislead the public when it comes to the HST. They just can’t seem to ever tell the truth.”
Vander Zalm says the government list, which was released on Friday by Finance Minister Colin Hansen and which you can find at https://hst.blog.gov.bc.ca/wp-content/uploads/2010/04/GST_PST_HST_List.pdf, excludes almost all services that will now have HST applied to them.
“They left out items such as; catering; computer repair services; consulting services; commercial leases; fishing charters; home appraisals; investment counseling; limousine rentals; skiing; and even parking fees!”
Vander Zalm says that the HST applies to virtually every service that the GST applied to, so the government has no excuse for not knowing which items should have been included.
Vander Zalm says they are also playing games with HST applying on new home construction. He says the government list indicates “no change” to new homes under $525,000, with a confusing, small print footnote indicating “embedded PST of 2%” on new homes under $525K.
“The truth is, even after HST rebates new homes under $525,000 will have approximately 2% more tax added to them in HST. That means on a new house worth $300,000, buyers will pay an additional $6,000 in HST. On a big ticket item like a new home, that is a ton of money taken from consumers.”
“They’re calling it embedded PST. That is absolute trash. They eliminated the PST. It is 2% HST,” Vander Zalm said.
“This all just points out the shenanigans they are playing. They are deceitful and incompetent. The real ‘HST Hit List’ can be found on our website at www.fighthst.com. There are over 100 items where 7% more in HST will be applied than were previously under the PST. The government list has only 53 items, almost half the real number.”
“The BC government list is bogus. The finance minister is bogus, and so is every MLA that supports this garbage,” concluded Vander Zalm.