Way To Be Cleared for B.C. To Attract Big Oil and Gas Companies
Thursday, November 15, 2012 @ 2:37 PM
Prince George, B.C.- It has been a long standing dispute between B.C. and Alberta and one that is about to come to an end.
Alberta had made it a rule, that if a company wanted to take advantage of the oil and natural gas industry in that Province, the company would have to have a head office or regional office located in Alberta.
That regulation didn’t sit well with B.C. as it flies in the face of TILMA.
B.C. has been dealing with this issue for some time with Alberta, and with no change in site, took it through a dispute resolution process which has resulted in Alberta now being willing to negotiate an end to that regulation.
B.C.’s Minister of Jobs, Tourism and Skills Training says he has been advised Alberta will make the changes within the next couple of weeks. “It will mean, B.C. will have an equal shot at attracting those head offices and regional offices in B.C. whether its in Vancouver, Prince George or Dawson Creek, we will be able to go after that business.”
Bell says there are no companies on the immediate horizon that are looking to set down their roots here “But with the taxation and regulatory environment that we have, we certainly think we have a chance at getting some of that business.”
He says there are some big players who do business in British Columbia “We would dearly love to see them locate some of their offices here. This has been a long standing sore point in the regulations, so we’re really glad that it’s coming to an end.”
Comments
Let me guess, Alberta relaxes that requirement and in exchange, BC is expected to play nice for something else related to oil and gas exploration to Alberta’s benefit. Hmmm . . .
âBut with the taxation and regulatory environment that we have, we certainly think we have a chance at getting some of that business.â
Until the NDP gets in and taxes every head office back out of the province… sigh
The sales tax situation is the same right now between Alberta and BC as far as business is concerned–well mostly–big business (over $10 million per year) still have to pay PST.
Come April, we will change that. We were upset with the Liberals and rightly so–it was wrong of them to put the HST in the way they did–even if it was good for us.
Most companies would want as much of their expenses to be in the better taxation area. Come April 1, there will be an encouragement to locate in Alberta a lot larger than just this regulation.
Let’s hold a referendum to make Alberta bring in a PST system like ours. ;-).
How about we just make the buggers pay their share my heart really bleeds for these guys, we have what they want so pay your way.We can keep cutting the tax’s to zero they would still not be happy. If you want the roads to haul the product and land for oil and gas it all costs as with heath care and education, we pay so should they.
Interceptor.. Tell me why the liberals are so much better.. I haven’t seen anything positive from them in the last three years and now they are trying to buy our votes with our tax money.. Yeah they are great compared to the ndp…
NMG and P Val hit the nail on the head!
“We were upset with the Liberals and rightly so–it was wrong of them to put the HST in the way they did–even if it was good for us.”
Immature reasoning, but typical of most BC voters. Yes, we’ll go back to the 12% PST/GST as opposed to the HST which would have been 10% by now. Real smart.
It’s all just smoke and mirrors when you look at political parties and how they mutually screw us over when it’s “there turn”.
Johnnybelt, even if it was at 10% now, it would still cost the average citizen more than the old way. If not, where was the money to come from to subsidize the businesses who no longer have to pay PST?
You will never see a company move it’s head office to BC as long the NDP remains a viable political entity. Believe it.
Corporations are predatory, Thier sole function is to make money. If thier is money to be made in BC they will be here regardless of who’s in power. Its time people quit the BS. These Corporations are all over the world, in Countries that are socialist, communist, dictatorships, or whatever. If there is a dollar to be made they will show up.
No Corporation with any brains whatsoever would totally abandon BC because of a change in Government. There would have to be some actual movement towards privatization, or some move to raise thier taxes to an extreme, or curtail their profits.
So quit the BS. I have never voted NDP and dont plan to, however I dont beleive that they scare anyone in this Province except a few people who post on this site.
Have a nice day.
Johnny Belt. The HST battle is over. Those in favour of the HST mainly big corportions and business, managed to fleece BC Taxpayers for approx $3 Billion dollars. In addition the Liberals (Incidently Liberals are by nature left of centre, and are more inclined to socialist thinking than conservatives) managed to screw taxpayers out of approx $1,600,000,000.00 while the HST was in effect, so they made a bundle.
The 110 items that were exempt from the PST will once again be exempt. Other items that were not exempt will now pay the 7% PST and 5% GST. So we are back to where we were a few years ago. Business’s are starting to change over to the new system as we speak. We should have forced the Government to refund us all the money that they and the corporations sucked out of us.
Ontario and Quebec will still have the HST, but thats thier problem. We in BC were able to get rid of it. In addition we were able to get rid of Gordon Campbell, Colin Hansen, Kevin Falcon, and a bunch of other Liberals. Thank God and Greyhound thier gone.
Gordon Campbell,Hansen, Falcon, and a few others are totally responsible if the NDP get elected. They royally screwed BC citizens and paid the price.
I’m aware the HST battle is over. The big lie is that you’ll save money going back to PST/GST. It was all about sticking it to the Liberals, nothing more.
The NDP don’t scare anyone? Ask Finning or the Pattison Group to name a couple of head offices they drove out last time. Maybe bookmark this page and get back to me in a couple of years.
Pattison Group, seems like there is an ex NDP Premier running that show makes me wonder?
I agree with JohnnyBelt in some respects. We were upset with the Liberals. It wasn’t about the PST and going back to tax on tax on tax. Keep in mind that businesses got to write off the PST which means that they pay more income tax with the HST.
Keep in mind that business hire people and give them jobs. We are presently at record levels of employment in Prince George even in a global down economy.
Big corporations still have to pay the PST even today on many of their expenses.
This argument has been won, but don’t assume that the best financial/economic decision was made. We’re going to pay for this one and it’s going to cost a lot more than $1.6 billion that we have to repay to the Feds. We cut off our nose to spite our face, but at least the government was sent a message–don’t mess with us!
Palapou, I think a tour through through history (and particularly the 1990s) would be useful. Not one gas/oil well drilled under the NDP, not one mine approved. You get the idea…
Here’s the link, Palapou.
http://www.sbr.gov.bc.ca/documents_library/notices/HST_Notice_004.pdf
You stated that “Those in favour of the HST mainly big corportions and business, managed to fleece BC Taxpayers for approx $3 Billion dollars. Big Corporations have fleeced the BC”
This is false.
Big Corporations still have to pay the PST.
icicle: “This argument has been won, but don’t assume that the best financial/economic decision was made. We’re going to pay for this one and it’s going to cost a lot more than $1.6 billion that we have to repay to the Feds. We cut off our nose to spite our face, but at least the government was sent a message–don’t mess with us!”
Good summary.
Lets quit the BS.
Carole Taylor, the former Finance Minister of the Liberal Party a few years ago, stated on more than one occasion that the HST was nothing more than a tax shift from business and corporations to consumers.
Business and consumers stood to enjoy saving in the area of $1.6 Billion per annum. The Government (although they denied it at first) stood to make $800 Million a year in additional taxes.
Consumers would be the fall guys. What part of the scenario do you not understand???
Its basically simple. Why do you think business, corporations, and the Government tried so hard to keep this tax??? Who do you think influenced the Liberals to bring it in in the first place??
Big Business and Corporations are by definition, phycopaths, they have no feeling, or concern about others, and their mantra for all intents and purposes are to make maximun profit for minimum costs. Corporations live forever. People die. Over the long term corporations win.
I am not overly concerned about the system we have, except when we get into blatant situations like the HST, when they go too far in exploiting people. Had the NDP brought in the HST I would still be in favour of throwing it out.
The message to business, corporations, and money hungry Governments, is to get the hell off the backs of the consumers, reduce taxes, and take less profit.
I understand your frustration, Palopu. There are better ways to tax business than with the PST though.
Imagine a world where CETA (Canadian, European Trade Agreement) is in place. All the trade barriers come down. It could be a good thing, but with our tax system it will be bad for BC or at least not as good as it could.
In the end all business income goes to people. People pay income taxes and sales taxes. Very little income actually stays in most businesses.
“In the end all business income goes to people. People pay income taxes and sales taxes. Very little income actually stays in most businesses”
Too simplistic of a statement and in fact, loads of profit stays in businesses via retained earnings and cash reserves. Unless it is done to appease external investors (in the case of large public corporations) or to provide the shareholders with an income source (in the case of smaller corporations), there is actually very little point in not keeping the money in the corporation. It’s far better for the corporation to have the money sitting in the bank than it is to pay it out to shareholders. Cash is good. Debt is bad (generally speaking).
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