Caterer charge HST? :)

Yes, but to protest the HST, the guests did not pay that portion of the bill.

Oooops ... someone just called me to say that they forgot to do that, so no front page news on Monday and no CBC/Global/BCTV/CITY TV coverage ... :-(

LOL

Thanks for all your efforts and hard work!

I agree patriots all of them. Standing up for democracy and the integrity of the democratic process.

Three cheers for the volunteers!
And they said it couldn't be done!
While we still don't know the final outcome,I am damn proud to see citizens finally standing up to a government that just doesn't get it!
It is the people who ARE the government in a democracy, and our "elected reprentatives" need to learn to listen and act accordingly!
Governments who don't listen to the people will never solve any problems...they ARE the problem!
Now, we wait to see what Campbell and Hansen are cooking up to buy us off,and you can bet that is exactly what they are doing right now!
My guess is a bunch of bullsh**t rhetoric and a token drop in the HST rate.
Not going to cut it.
It isn't just about the HST itself...it is about a dishonest government and a Premier that cannot and should not be trusted!
Also,the fact that the party MLA's and the backbenchers are standing behind Campbell at the risk of committing political suicide, tells us that there is more going on here than meets the eye!

Congratulations volunteers! You deserve a vote of thanks from all of us for your collective efforts that've brought us further than any of our opponents, and the cynics who covertly support them, believed we could ever go. Now lets show them that ours is not a hollow victory, and that we will push on until the war is won.

I also notice the lack of press that the HST is getting lately.
Can't help but think that is deliberate.
Campbell and Hansen are probably hoping that time will calm the anger and we will just accept the HST as a given.
And the mainstream media and big business will help make that happen,if they can.
We need to keep it front and center and we also need to remember that it was the business community that tried to help the government ram the HST down our throats for their own benefit.
I doubt they ever had any intention of passing any savings on to the consumer.
They want profits...so why would they do that?...in spite of what Campbell and Hansen tried to make us believe!
Actually,I find it offensive that they thought we were stupid enough to even believe that!

A bit of what I think is an interesting backgrounder to all this nonesense.

Looking at the USA, and older country and a much more diverse country due to it having 50 states and larger cities all with considerably diverse and changing key economies which require many different ways of doing business - from fishing to auto manufacturing, to pharmaceuticals, to mining, to oil, to finance, to forestry, to farming, to motion pictures, to gambling, to aviation, to high tech software development, etc.

Sales taxes –
There are no state sales taxes in Alaska, Delaware, Montana New Hampshire, and Oregon. An interesting one is Hawaii which has a sales tax that is charged to business rather than consumers.
Where taxes are charged to consumers, resellers are generally exempt from sales taxes
A true value added tax system charges resellers as well, but they can claim the tax paid against the tax collected.

Income taxes –
Federal income tax tops out at 35%
State wise there are none in Alaska, Florida, Nevada, South Dakota, Texas, Washington, Wyoming. New Hampshire and Tennessee only have taxes on dividends and interest incomes.
In those states, the sales taxes are relatively high.
Illinois has the lowest rate, a 3% flat income tax rate. Most states have a progressive income tax. California has the widest range from 1% to over 10%
States also allow counties and cities to levy income taxes as well as sales taxes.

So, look out, with cities all over the country crying the cascading of responsibilities from Federal to Provincial to municipalities, a USA system will be coming to a province near you soon. All it will take is more pressure from property owners and we will get hit with regional and city sales taxes. And if that is not enough, and Feds and Provinces keep on playing the game of lowering income taxes, the cities will get into the income tax game.

Why do I think that? Because the services which the general population expects to be provided for them have to be paid one way or another. So, rather than it being one way across the board, all levels of governments will be able to adjust the system to whatever their local needs might be.

So, with that many systems, how can anyone really say that one system is better than another? How can anyone really say that if we go the HST route rather than stay with the PST system we will be more competitive? Chances of proving that are slim to none, in my opinion. Two years down the road, when the BC economy is booming, the government and business will say that it is because of the move to the HST. If the economy is still in the tank, the opposition and the people will say it is because of the move to the HST. In my opinion, it is likely that neither will be right. What is much more likely to be the case is that it will be the way it will be because we are a trading province and the economy will be up or down depending on the world around us.

THAT is what will be the determining factor, not an HST.

Yes, businesses will adjust their profit margins back to what they are used to and what the market will bear, but that will take time and over that time there will be other factors that will cause them to raise or lower their prices to consumers due to competition.

At the moment, however, forget about anyone giving you a deal if they actually can claim some HST because they used to pay a “hidden” PST. Most businesses are down in sales and services, thus their overhead is typically taking a larger percentage which they may be able to carry for a short period. The HST will allow them to make up that loss. So they will first try to make up that loss. By the time that is done, they will be into the next cycle of inflationary increases to their payrolls as well as inventory replenishing and they simply will not be able to reduce their prices to the customers. In fact, their will likely be the normal increases that few will notice except on those that are highly visible – utility, city user fees, city taxes, etc.

So, go to it people, fight it out, at a time when our energies should be directed to fixing our forests and our forest industry for a decade to come of continuing flat demand for forest products by the USA, keeping our health costs in check while improving services, diversifying the economy of the province in general, improving the state of the union in our interior and island cities, moving to alternative energy processes that are not dependent on wood as the only alternate, sharing the secondary and tertiary manufacturing infrastructure with the rest of the province, and improving infrastructure to allow that to happen.

We are spinning wheels, people!!! It is not a good sign.

Governments will always expand to the level of money that is available.

We have so many things going on in the Province that is costing us billions of dollars that it is a disgrace. Governments have so many revenue sources they cannot keep track of them.

They are like Scrooge McDuck sitting in the basement and swimming in money, as it continues to pour in through the windows.

The mere fact that ICBC has a reserve fund of $3 Billion dollars when the BC Auditor states that $1.5 Billion would be more than adequate should give you a hint. The Government is skimming this money into General Revenues, along with money from Hydro, BCLC, BC Liquor Board etc; etc; etc;

The only reason the Government needs more money is because of mis management, and poor planning. They are totally out of control, and they have to be stopped.

All the BS about diversifying the economy, improving the state of the union, in the interior, and island cities, moving to alternative energy processes etc; is just that BS. These Governments over the years have had ample time to do all these things, in conjuction with business, and they have done next to nothing except spend billions of dollars on BS projects.

This has got to stop.

I have no interest in arguing these issues with Politicians, etc; when at the end of the day the solution is always a increase in my taxes, and an increase in Government spending. Seems to me that there are many many ways of solving problems, generating work, and cutting costs. Why is it the only solution that Governments have is to increase taxes.

At the end of the day, they work for us, we do not work for them. In the past few years it would appear that our sole reason for being is to generate money for Governments to spend on their pet project, pet business's and pet freinds.

First we stop the HST, then we look at Municipal Taxes, with a view to having them reduced. The well has run dry. Politicians had better smarten up, or get the hell out of politics.

The gravy train has pulled into the station, and its time for the free riders to get off.

The HST is a tax grab and nothing more. Good for business and corporations, bad for consumers. Its really quite simple. We do not have any obligation to pay taxes for business or corporations. They already get a number of breaks from Governments. If a business is not happy in BC then I suggest that they leave. Im sure someone will fill the space they leave.

Strong words ... but totally without any push behind them. you are starting to talk like governments ... lots of talk, no action ....

And if you succeed, then what? How are you going to run government?...

I know, trust you. I think I have heard that somewhere before ....

Wasted energy.

I ask you thing and one thing only Palopu.

Where is the model you want to copy so that we can see how well it is working? That should be easy.

Anarchists unite ..... :-)

Gus you sound like you are on the verge of discovering what a federalist system is... wouldn't that be something... the concept where people have a right to vote with their feet when one government screws up and another gets it right, but above all the right to have that diversity and choice to begin with.

The HST is wrong on many levels, and BC should not have been robbed of its sovereign right with out a vote on value added taxation that was engineered by back room dealing politicians.

Nice to see the volunteers respected for their efforts.
metalman.

"If a business is not happy in BC then I suggest that they leave. Im sure someone will fill the space they leave."
Theres the problem - how many companies pulled up stakes and headed for Alberta during the NDP anti business model of the 90's? I know I lost several suppliers out of Vancouver and had to ship stuff in from Edmonton. Heck, even BC born and bred companies like Finning tractor moved thier head office to Alberta. And no, their spaces were not filled...

Well Interceptor:
It is now 2010 and the Libs have been in power and cutting business taxes on the backs of consumers, children, seniors, the vulnerable, to stimulate investment and create employment in BC since 2001. So how about telling me why those Vancouver suppliers you're talking about never came back......jeez....

"the concept where people have a right to vote with their feet when one government screws up and another gets it right"

I know quite well what a federal system means. That is why I went to the USA to see how their states differ from each other.

My thesis is that all of them actually get it right. It works for them. If it doesn't, they will eventually change it. Will that improve anything? I doubt it very much. It will make some people happy because they see a change from an input point of view. However, does it make a difference from an output point of view, that is the key. In most cases one cannot point to a relationship of input change to output change.

People simply do not like things to stay the same. They like to see a change and like to think that they are part of the reason why change has occurred.

Why do you think political parties change quite quickly from left to right to center to right to left and so on and so on. Long periods of the same government leanings are quite rare. Life goes on in spite of governments in power rather than because of governments in power. People adjust if need be.