Province Gets Five Years To Pay GST
Wednesday, January 11, 2012 @ 10:02 AM
Victoria – The Province has concluded an agreement with the Government of
Canada for the orderly repayment of the $1.6 billion in transition funding
it received when B.C. moved to the Harmonized Sales Tax, Minister of
Finance Kevin Falcon announced today.
Under the new agreement, the Province will have five years to repay in
full the transition funding, and Canada has agreed to waive any interest
charges over this period.
While the Province has always acknowledged its responsibility for the
repayment of the federal transition funding, the actual timing of when
that repayment was to occur remained something for B.C. and Canada to
further discuss.
The extended repayment schedule will save the Province debt interest costs
that would otherwise have been incurred had the Province had to pay back
the full amount right away-money that can instead go toward protecting
core B.C. services.
The full cost of the $1.6-billion repayment will still be booked in the
provincial’s government’s 2011-12 fiscal year, but the Province will
instead be able to flow the cash over the coming five years.
Comments
Ok so when do we the people get back our PST that more then 700,000 voted for in the referendum? How about moving up the election date too and give us a chance to throw the LIE berals out of office. Afterall it’s only a matter of time now and they WILL be gone completely in this province. EXTINQUISH THE HST NOW. We voted for that.
You won’t get it back. Just consider that the money would have had to come from elsewhere and you did not have to pay it in another way.
So now the prices of all those goods and services that were reduced will go back up and the companies that expanded will lay people off and the companies that came back to BC will be moving back to PEI …
;-)
The people knew that it would have to be repaid when they voted to toss out the HST in a democratic referendum.
What is the complaint NOW? Would it be better to have to pay it back all at once?
Sure!
Even if they would extinguish the HST right now I would still have to pay GST + PST on virtually all the major purchases that I am making now and in the future, amounting to almost the same identical amount.
Campbell is gone and the Liberals have a new leader, just like James is gone and the NDP has a new leader!
The parties are still the same but everything else is supposed to be new and improved!
What’s good for the goose (Clark) is good for the gander (Dix).
Relax!
Why did they spend it already with a question to wether or not the HST would stay ? Also what did they spend it on ?
Gus. The money originally came from business and corporations. Thats what the HST was all about. A transfer of millions of dollars from business to consumers.
Once the HST is recinded it will be interesting to see if they return to the old system of taxing business, and corporations, or if they try to **screw** us in a different way.
Because these large corporations are mostly exporting companies, we would not have paid this tax in some other way.
The HST was never anything more than a **gift** to business and corporations, and a tax grab by the Government. A low down dirty trick pulled off by Campbell and his cohorts. Problem was, this time they got caught, and it has caused them all kinds of grieve.
Im curious as to just how much of the additional tax collected under the HST, on the 110+ items that were tax exempt, went to the Federal Government. In other words, because of the consolidation of the PST with the GST for a tax of 12%, on an additional 110+ items, how much of this money went to the Federal Government. If the Feds made money on this tax, that amount should be deducted from what we owe.
Did the Feds get any portion of the 7% increase on exempt items?? or did it all go to the Province.
This HST fiasco had the good fortune of exposing the Liberals for what they actually are. A bunch of conniving, self serving politicians, who do not represent in any way the people who voted for them, with the exception of their business and corporate buddies.
Who cares? It’s just another budget item.
Remember that one interesting fact emerged during the whole HST kerfuffle: As early as during the Glen Clarke administration talks were underway with Ottawa about the option of B.C. also subscribing to a harmonized sales tax, know as HST!
It wasn’t exclusively Campbell’s idea and Harper setting an ultimatum with a carrot and a stick had a lot to do with it becoming a reality!
We’ll pay it back and life goes on…
waht alot of people fail to realize that just before the trasition .. the provincial tax was re-vamped … to take effect on a date after the implimentation of the HST …. when we go back to PST/GST system … will will pay PST on most everything that we never did before …
Just another way for Gordo to say screw ya’ll … we will get that money and pay for the olympics one way or the other
Good god you people. The HST was a great thing for small businesses and small business is the largest provider of employment in the province. You keep saying we are going to elect a new government other than the liberals in the next election well what are our options???? I will never ever vote NDP who practically killed our province last time they were in power. There is no other viable option other than the NDP so you can bet ill be voting for the devil I do know as opposed for a devil I do not know.
Prince George wrote: “The people knew that it would have to be repaid when they voted to toss out the HST in a democratic referendum.”
The ones on here either did not know or just want to hit the BCLiberals one more time irrespective of the conditions that were known.
Anyone who has read the agreement, and it was posted on here several times, and understood it also knew that one could not just opt out anytime.
The early time to opt out was missed since the referendum did not take place till after that. So, the opt out time was a condition of the contract.
BS BCracer ….. explore the facts of the contract, Creating your own version does not help anyone, especially not you.
Palopu wrote: “The money originally came from business and corporations. Thats what the HST was all about. A transfer of millions of dollars from business to consumers”
Good God man, do you really think I do not know that????
THAT is why I wrote the prices will now go up instead of down and companies will be leaving the province because they can’t be competitive, or downsizing anf getting rid of all the jobs we created, and we will end up paying the same.
In fact, I hear that the PG service industry will be shutting its doors and moving to Hinton and Grande Prairie.
The Chicken Littles are still around, don’t worry.
Di anyone ever notice that Palopu seems to have absolutely no sense of humour … makes for a pretty dull site. :-(
Gus:”In fact, I hear that the PG service industry will be shutting its doors and moving to Hinton and Grande Prairie.”
Will that be before (!) or after the sky is falling? Will we still be needing a brand new PAC?
No?
Things are looking up again, already!
Drove quite a bit all over town yesterday. Where the streets were not sheets of glare ice (not a grain of sand anywhere) the bare dry pavement was full of humungous pot holes!
I spotted two fully automated pot hole patching machines blasting out the debris, drying with hot air, injecting hot patching compound…one pothole after the other…what a wonderful sight to see!
Ooops, just kidding of course – not a sign of anyone repairing or patching anything!
gus: “The ones on here either did not know or just want to hit the BCLiberals one more time irrespective of the conditions that were known. “
Bingo!
Hey! this just came in over the wire– The Fiberals have moved their offices to Hinton and Grand Prarie and Gordo bought a retirement home in P.E.I.–could this be true or is it just another rumor??
Must be official. I saw Tourism PG’s good time moose heading east.
Wileycoyote: You’re right on the money. What is the matter with 700,000 British Columbians? They’re stupid. They voted in anger rather than using their head. They believed VanderZalm??? How soon they forget. Now all the businesses in BC will have to go through the GST paperwork again; adding more cost to their services or product and we will pay more again. You 700,000 were thinking; we’ll show those damn Liberals a thing or two! Yes you did, they are still in government and now they are going to take 1.6 billion from your pocket in 5 years. I’m pissed off with 700,000 BCers.
Us retired folks are going to have to move to Alberta – no tax – free health care – not a liberal in sight and I won’t have to give any money to the Feds for the actions of an angry bunch of voters.
Yes, what were we thinking…..we should have rolled over and let them shove anything down our throats they wanted to. And believe me, it would continue and continue and get worse and worse until somebody stood up and said enough. We did that on HST and it will be done on Enbridge not because we are stupid, but rather because politicians are paid to do what the majority wants, not just what the few rich corporations want. Be my guest if you want to move to that barren waste land they call Alberta. I lived there and would never want to go back and live there again. Beautiful BC all the way….regardless of the politics here.
Supertech. Wake up and smell the roses. In the first place we received $1.6 Billion from the Feds to implement the HST. However it was not all spent on implementation. In fact I beleive the last $500 Million was received after implementation and went into general revenue.
Furthermore the Government will collect approx $800 Million per year for the 3 years that this tax is in effect, even though they originally claimed it would be revenue neutral. 3 times $800 equals $2,400,000,000.00 which is more than enough to pay back the Feds.
Furthermore business and corporations will get the full benefit of the tax break from the HST for three years. This equates to huge savings for these companies. Somehwere in the area of $1.5 Billion per year.
Thats why Christy Clark, Falcon, and their henchmen are dragging their feet of reinstating the HST. They are making a piss pot full of money every day it stays in effect.
There is no doubt that the Liberals will try and find a way to look after their business buddies at the expense of consumers on this issue, however it will backfire on them. The 700,000 who voted to get rid of the HST will probably not vote for the Liberals, along with a hell of a lot of others.
So at the end of the day the Liberals while joyfully screwing the taxpayers will in the end screw themselves. Thats a good thing.
At the end of the day it comes down to honesty. If the Government cannot be trusted, then why should any of us vote for them.
The alternative??? I suspect some will vote for the *new* Conservative Party, and some for the *new* BC First Party, and of course other splinter groups, and last but not least a big whack of them will vote NDP. Split the vote and the Liberals lose, and the NDP win.
The Liberals need to go. They are a spent force in BC.
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