Black Says HST All about Jobs
By 250 News
Tuesday, October 13, 2009 01:07 PM
Prince George, B.C. – Minister of Small Business, Technology and Economic Development preceded the Roundtable on small business session in Prince George with a presentation to the Prince George Chamber of Commerce. ( at right, Black addresses the Prince George Chamber of Commerce)
While taking the opportunity to celebrate the success of small business in the region, Black spent the majority of his address on the HST.
“We are coming through the most significant interruption in the global economy since the great depression” said Black as he pointed out that Alberta had started its fiscal year predicting a $2 billion dollar surplus and 7 months later had finished the year with an $8 billion dollar deficit.
Black says the difference between the B.C. situation with a $2.8 billion dollar deficit, and that of Alberta was that B.C “Had the annoyance of an election which makes people ask ‘where did those $2 billion dollars go?’ “
Black firmly supports the HST “There is no greater thing we can do to stimulate the economy than the GST.” Black says the reaction to the HST has been exactly what he had expected, “Anytime you change a taxation system people are going to stand back and ask how is this going to affect me?”
He says the HST was something that was brought up by business throughout the province during the Select Standing Committee on Finance’s public input sessions and the Province always said no. “What changed?” asked Black, “Three things, Ontario, flexibility and $1.6 billion dollars.”
1. Ontario. With Ontario agreeing to adopt the harmonized Sales tax, it means items purchased by distributors in Ontario are the same items purchase by B.C,. distributors. “When that HST takes effect in Ontario, they will have a 7% price advantage over distributors here who are selling the same product.” He says the Federal government said it was not willing to move Ontario through the transition then do the same all over again for B.C. It was better to do both at the same time.
2. Flexibility, “There are some key things that changed, first, we said we didn’t want a 8% provincial share, we wanted 7% and we wanted to freeze the system for two years and then review it.”
3. $1.6 billion dollars from the Federal Government for signing on “ Frankly I think that was a time limited offer as more province’s get on the band wagon, there is little incentive for others to sign on.” Black says the money comes at a time when the Province needs the cash infusion.
“Anyone who thinks this is a cash grab by the government is grossly misinformed” says Black who says the Province won’t break even on this until two or three years down the road.
“If there is one thing, one word, you should take away from this, it is jobs. It’s all about creating the environment for more jobs.”
Black says while the motto for the Olympics is higher, faster, stronger, those same words have been used to describe B.C.’s ability to come out of the current economic downturn as economic forecasters predict B.C will be the first province to come out of the recession and will see real economic growth.
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Posted by: sportsman on October 13 2009 1:31 PM