Been curiously watching recent movements to deal with the HST in B.C. before it is instituted in a couple of months.
There was the ongoing campaign promoted by some in the media to repeal the tax, even though it really just replaces something most of us already pay anyway. But some people think this is a new tax, and they aren't being disabused of the notion by the anti-tax people.
Yes, some things will be taxed that weren't before—consulting services, for example, which impacts me considerably—but for the most part, it's same old, same old under a new name. It just looks like more because it's all in one tax, instead of two. This means that we no longer will be paying tax on tax, but apparently that's too subtle for most people to recognize.
Then there was that big anti-HST rally in which former premier Bill Vander Zalm rose from the dead and, teeth flashing in the daylight, announced that he was going to lead the forces of righteousness and battle the evil tax into submission.
Yeah, sure he is. Even though it's not a provincial tax at all, and is really a replacement tax that was contracted by the Feds, and any reversal of it—which will require years of court fights—will mean the province will have to return almost a billion dollars to them at a time when they're desperately trying to curtail spending so they can deal with runaway health care costs.
I don't know what Vander Zalm's game is, but I'm pretty sure he knows these facts, so he's basically just stirring up the pot so he can flash those pearlies in front of the cameras again. Fame is a hard thing to lose.
Then there's all the NDP troops who are joining Vander Zalm's campaign to recall the government—apparently Hell has frozen over—because, well The People say they should. Why, of course this isn't a strategy to simply make life miserable for the government. Of course it's purely altruistic. I'm shocked, shocked I tell you, that anyone would think differently.
The Pre-HST Real Estate Rush
Lastly, there is the curious spectacle of hundreds, if not thousands, of British Columbians rushing to buy real estate to beat the onset of the HST, which will add tens of thousands to the price of a home here in Bubbleville.
While this will probably make a lot of agents happy, I'm sure that there will be a lot of weeping and gnashing of teeth (how does one gnash teeth anyway?) come this summer after the tax actually takes effect.
These people can't seem to understand that when they line up to buy something to avoid a tax, they just bid up the price. So what they save in tax, they pay in inflated prices. I mean come on, an average of a million bucks for a crack shack—oops an ordinary house—in Vancouver? What are these people smoking?
And how are they going to feel when those prices come down after the HST comes in and the market falls? Happy that they got away without paying a tax, I presume, even though it will probably cost them many thousands more in mortgage payments over the long run.
But then real estate in this city has never made any sense anyway. People think of it as a great investment. But statistics clearly show that over time house price increases are roughly equivalent to a GIC. But the numbers look great and it is an "investment" you can live in—even though it might cost you both arms and a leg to do so, and you don't really like it much anyway.
Do me a favour, folks. Stop shouting at me that a million0dollar house is going to beat a "new" tax or is a great investment. For most of you, a house is going to suck up 75% of your income and have you slurping packaged noodles for the next 20 years.
Jeez, no wonder you're so upset at a tax that's going to eat 7 per cent of the rest of it.
