Why It's Foolish to Reject the HST

Tony Wanless | July 4, 2011

If it's not through the HST, you're going to be paying a fee or tax elsewhere.

Kill the HST and you’re just going to have to pay it in another form. And it will probably amount to much more.

Okay, I wasn’t going to go near the HST vote, having said my HST piece earlier. But since everyone else is ramping up the noise, I might as well join in and reiterate.

My opinion is that you would be a fool to vote against the HST (which, in the typical logic of bureaucrats, means voting yes on the upcoming ballot).

Not because I think the HTC sucks. I do, just like I think any tax sucks. But we have them so that we can share in society’s benefits. Under our system, we all pay something so that we can provide equal benefits for everybody.

The Silly Season: from 2009 to 2011 in BC politics

So, if you’re upset because your restaurant meal went up a dollar or two, or some other service is now taxable when before it wasn’t, and that’s your reason to vote yes, then you might want to think again.

Or if you buy the macro anti-HST argument that the tax is going to increase the yearly cost of taxation to an average family by $130 dollars (the price of a hockey game ticket) then you might want to think again.

Or if you’re against the tax because it only “benefits big business”– a fallacy since most big business in this province is export-based (people outside this province pay the tax, not you) – then you might want to think again.

Why? Because we all demand, and expect as our right, multiple government services. But someone has to pay for them.

If that money isn’t raised by the HST, which is at least a consumption tax and so is the fairest way to tax people, it will have to be raised somewhere else. Where do you think the money for those health costs – now running more than 40 per cent of the province’s budget – are going to come from?

I’ll tell you. Fees and other forms of hidden tax.

Here’s why I’m voting for the HST (meaning I’ll vote no in the referendum).

At least I have some control over whether I pay a consumption tax. I just consume less. Maybe cut back on restaurant meals, or buy fewer consumer goods.

I don’t have any control on government fees for service – if I have to renew my license, I’ll have to (probably) pay an increased service fee.

Those billions have to be raised somewhere. So you’re going to be paying a “new tax" of some sort even if you vote down the HST.

We all demand services, and expect them as our right. But someone has to pay for them. Arguing about whether it should be you or someone else, is just foolish.