I love the part about workers will receive higher wages.You will need higher wages because it is going to cost you a lot more to live.

This HST is so good the :Province of BC waited almost 20 years before implementing it. I guess they didnt want all the benefits, and jobs that it would create.

Rather strange that now it is the **in** tax.

Remember the old adage **Bullshit baffles brains** Thats whats being tried here.

As Jack Mintz compares to what?

This is a tax transfer and shift from business to individuals. Furthermore, individuals don't get to file for a remittance, so they pay the full cost of the new tax structure. BC might be lucky to own 10% of the equity in the major corporations that operate in BC. So a tax benefit to them is mostly exported, where as a tax penalty for residents is fully accounted for in loss of purchasing power locally.

Its easy to make a model based on erroneous assumptions as we seen of the BC liberal budget assumptions prior to the last election. Its called game theory planning and what they do is they try to make mathematical assumptions about how business and individuals and other stakeholders will react... trying to herd these stakeholders and everyone else into the calculated presupposed assumptions. It all comes down to how they define their variables (which they are never held accountable for), but their calculations will say nothing of what is morally right... as in what was a law that was brought in through full open transparent procedure, how it effects citizens of BC and their personal well being, and how it effects the sovereign ability for the province to fully exercise its sovereignty in providing a tax code that meets the local priorities and to arrive at these determinations through a full and open democratic process.

This HST deal is an end run around the democratic process, and that is what the biggest threat about it is. You can not 'game theory' dollar figures to our sovereign ability to be informed and involved democratically in change that allows for the democratic process to take its course in the best interest of BC reacting to local circumstances. Why even vote otherwise... because it shows such utter contempt for the democratic process as to render it meaningless for anything other than as a source of legitimacy for a cabal of special interest to game theory tax and spend to what ever advantages they feel, for what ever interest it is they are working for... and increasingly it will be for foreign interests alien to the people of BC.

This should almost not even be a referendum on the tax, but rather it should be a referendum on the perversion of our democratic process to secure the hidden agenda of selected special interests. It should be a grand jury on how our vote is being stolen by political machines (federal and provincial) that will pledge allegiance to any flag (special interest) that gets them a vote, and then once elected act in a manor that takes the democratic process away from openness and transparency.

BC was lied to in the election only one year ago, and only months before rolling out this plan. This plan gives up provincial sovereignty (surrender of fiduciary duty without a vote) to decide what we do and do not want to tax with a consumption tax. So it in effect changes that whole tax code in many ways big and small without so much as a democratic discussion, much less open debate that could be voted on where each politician is held to account for their decisions. The politicians skirt accountability for wholesale changes to our tax code because of the nature of the changes taking place.

None of this fits the democratic contract politicians have with the governed citizens from my perspective.

How much did it cost the Liberals to have this report written? More Liberal smoke and mirrors.

Tax me, I am Canadian

ha ha ha ha ha, do they have any swamp land or bridges for sale?

The sad part of this is that they think that they can fool the population with this.

Even sadder is the fact that they seem to be doing just that.

Come Election Time you all Vote for the same again, there is no help for you.

of course the government is going to say HST is good...
Where is that petition to stop it?

I have no idealistic thoughts that it will stop it but I want to give my 2 cents worth....

So if all these predictions of the HST being good don't come true, who can I go after for a rebate?

More Libtard BS.Yes it's good for big business!!Bob's yer drunkel pack yer bags it's all over.

The report cost $12000. The author is a former director of the CD Howe Institute, a well known right wing, pro-business think tank. And more importantly, this indicates that the Liberals formulated the policy of adopting the HST BEFORE they had actually studied the potential effects of the tax. This scares me, and not just a little. How could a government bring in such a sweeping change without knowing what the impact would be?

More Libtard BS.Yes it's good for big business!!Bob's yer drunkel pack yer bags it's all over.

That so-called "Report" is absolute fantasy. Businesses don't invest in new capital equipment to create jobs, they do it to eliminate them. We are not talking about a WAC Bennett-era economy here, where this region and many other contained a treasure trove of untapped resources just waiting to be accessed and offered to buyers in a 'First'-world more than anxious to receive them, and willing and able, (at that time), to pay for them.

We're talking about a mature economy. Where any 'pioneering' won't be resulting in new job creation, but rather in consolidating and eliminating as many of the well-paying jobs that remain within it.

Reducing the number of "jobs" is one of the very few areas left open to a business where it can effectively control its "costs".

The reason is elementary accounting. Labour displacing new Capital investment is not charged off against Revenues in the same year it is incurred, as are "Labour costs", but is "expensed" against Revenues over a number of years, (the expected life of the Capital asset acquired), through depreciation schedules.

Which, under the rules and conventions of double-entry cost accountancy, generally results in the Firm being able to report a higher rate of profit than it would if it were to retain a more 'labour intensive' process.

While there is nothing whatsoever to be said for retaining outmoded processes, or keeping people 'working' simply to give someone a 'job' ~ unless you believe, as many seem to, that the ultimate importance of a human being is to be a "drudge" in perpetuity ~ the displacement of 'labour' by such means unfortunately also displaces the "incomes" that would otherwise have been earned by that labour.

When this happens on a widespread basis, as it has, and does, there is then no effective way for the "products of the machine" to be sold to those who need or want them. They may be 'cheaper', (but likely will not be), but without "incomes" how can they be had?

Mr. Campbell and his government are hopelessly mired in an outdated mindset which does NOT conform to modern economic reality. Allowing the HST to be implemented without an effective protest will only encourage further takings of our already collectively insufficient incomes, until we, and our government are so mired in debt that a scenario far worse than most could ever imagine will take place.
Sign the Petition, and don't be snowed by fantasies like the stuff emanating from hired guns like Mintz.

Wow!...what a load of crap...and all paid for by B.C.taxpayers.
Mintz was hired to achieve a desired result that has nothing to do with the truth.
You just have to know, when a government wants something this bad,it is only going to benefit them!
Particularly when it is the Campbell government, with it reputation for spin and lies.
Simple logic and math is enough to tell us that there is no way in hell we will gain by the HST.
And we don't need to pay a consultant to figure that out!
All this report does is make me even more determined to see the HST fail.
Be afraid B.C....be very afraid!
I am volunteering!

Jack Mintz is dishonest,the man did a complete flip flop...Read what he said in 2008 about the HST..

A complete 180 degree turn...He is a phony.

Read the gruesome details here.


http://powellriverpersuader.blogspot.com/2010/03/hst-shell-game-continues.html

One can now believe we do not live in a democracy, we haven't since the first day G. Campbell took office and he fired half the health care workers in the province, then cut their wages by 40%, in a democracy we would have had the option to vote on that. We didn't, and that just set the stage for years to come, now Mr. Campbell will do whatever he wants with whatever excuses he can come up with and we will all get the shaft no matter what we say about it. Next year if he runs again all the big corps will vote him in again and we will have another expense added to our bottom line. If BC was a company it would've been insolvent years ago. You cannot run a business where you give all your money to one party and then rack up your expenses far over what the incoming income can support, yet the Liberals do it all the time and they claim to be the financially resposible party...what a laugh, we the common taxpayer can see what the HST will do to the common person on the street yet they push it through anyway..thats scary, because it shows that the government has no compassion for its own voters. the cost of living will continue to rise, the banks will continue to hang on to everyones money and the government will continue to take whats left..our pensions are going to be whatever we can pick up in the ditches in beer bottles.

PG is a Canfor (big company) town. If its good for big companies its good for us. Forget about raises. In the next 50 years unskilled labor is going to be happy to take ANYTHING. This isnt about increasing quality of life for unskilled labor anymore, its about trying not to slip to far. Its not the governments fault you chose not to educate yourself. Unskilled labor will reap what is has sewn. Which is nothing!

If it is good for big companies, we will not see the benefits. Those benefits will be out of the country at a keystroke. Sure, there will be some employment, but really, employment will continue of the citizens will move to the employment.

Pulp industry, down
Dimensional lumber, almost kaput
sheet lumber, all closed and produced in super mills.

So far, Canfor is lucky to keep the doors open. Only through dramatic actions has the board kept things as smooth as they are. Just watch, there will be labor pool reductions in all these big business' followed by reductions in the smaller operations. Partly due to downsizing, partly due to the economic climate, and partly due to mechanization. Any way they can reduce their unit production costs will be implemented.

So in the end, we will get it in the end without a kiss or lubed chute.

I read it Grant G...sounds like Mintz sold his soul for a few gold coins?
I am not suprised that he would be working for the Campbell government.
His credibility factor on a scale of 1-10 is about 0?
What I am REALLY miffed at is that he took my/our tax dollars to write this drivel.
Did Campbell really think we could be bought off that easily?

Hey Gordo, I have some oceanfront property for sale in West beaverly. You should invest, believe me it will be good for you and will create employment (Mine) and I promise any profits I make will be given back to the general populace.

we some how have to stop these idiots !! look i know they are the govt but this is ridicoulous !! pensions ,lies, scandels, etc etc and what do we do ? i recomend just getting pg to fire our mla after this air scandel and put someone at a intern basis i know we could do better i just know

Let's all move to Alberta. That'll teach 'em.

Thanks Andyfreeze.

Spread the word. Jack Mintz is nothing but a snake oil salesman!

And let me be perfectly clear folks...I am not a NDPer...

I would vote for a group of midgets wearing kilts to removes these liars from office, or any group that can win...

And no offence to midgets..I should say little people.

Feel free to spread any of my links around.

No spin,only "The Straight Goods"

Cheers

"Spread the word. Jack Mintz is nothing but a snake oil salesman!"

I did that, and all anybody said was, "Who's Jack Mintz?"

Guess what? I don't care if it's good for the province. I care if it's good for the average, working sap who is responsible for packing the tax load in this country. And it's not. More taxes mean less for the workers and their families. Enough is enough. And I say no more. Pack it up and park it.

Its a violation of the democratic process. Anyone that supports this HST process does not support democracy.

If hypothetically you support this HST process, because you support the BC liberals (or the HST for that matter)... than what is to stop a government that you don't agree with at some future date from making the same kind of end run around the democratic process to bring into law anything that wasn't promises and harms you directly? This is a precedence that everyone should oppose and stop in its tracks now because it is a clear threat to everyone in a way that goes far beyond simply the HST debate.

People need to stand up for democracy, because right now your vote means nothing if this is allowed to go through.