statism watch

Flashback: If passed, HST locked in through 2012 | New HST tax is fair, McGuinty says | Thousands rally against coming HST tax in BC | Flaherty offers taxpayer-funded bribe to adopt HST tax, holdout provinces demur | BC, like Ontario, moves to harmonize taxes | Ontario Liberals pressing to hide new ‘harmonized’ tax in prices | Ontario to merge GST, PST in ‘harmonized’ tax hike | EU approves free-trade talks with Canada | Canada expects EU free-trade talks soon: Stockwell Day | Harper, Sarkozy vow to work toward Canada-EU deal | CD Howe Institute backs Canada-EU deal, deep integration | Towards a new world order: Canada-EU trade proposal rivals scope of NAFTA

Maria Babbage, Canadian Press
October 31, 2009

Ontario Premier says even his mom questions the tax, but province must forge ahead with controversial plan

There may be some doubters in the Liberal ranks about tax harmonization, but that shouldn’t stop Ontario from forging ahead with the controversial plan, Premier Dalton McGuinty said Saturday.

Even his own mother has a name for it: “Holy sales tax!”

But party members must be honest with the public about every obstacle his government faces, from the eHealth scandal over untendered contracts to Ontario’s looming $24.7-billion deficit — the largest in the province’s history, Mr. McGuinty said. [Ed. Note: Why not submit a 'Consumer Proposal' to the Federal Government? And they, in turn, to the IMF?]

“We need to talk about these things, we shouldn’t run away from them,” he said. “We’re moving ahead with the HST because at heart, we think it’s the right thing to do.”

He also advised party members during a closed-door session to offer a mea culpa to voters angry about the province’s botched, $1-billion effort to create electronic health records.

“I said one of the things that I would like to have as a characteristic widely perceived of our government is that we are honest,” Mr. McGuinty said.

“I just said, ‘You know, we came up short, and if you’re asked about it, you need to say that. You need to admit to that.’ We made a mistake. We’re making some changes to make sure it doesn’t happen again.”

Mr. McGuinty seemed determined to tackle the doubters head-on during a speech Friday night, which made pointed references to the HST and his decision to move ahead with a $1.5-billion-a-year program to provide full-day kindergarten for four- and five-year-olds despite the huge deficit.

There are “difficult choices” ahead, but the government won’t “hack and slash” to balance the books, he told the crowd.

The world has changed and the question the party now faces isn’t “what do voters want,” but what can it do to make sure the province grows stronger, which includes the HST, Mr. McGuinty said.

“It’s been said that ships are safe in habour,” he told the crowd. “But that’s not why we build ships. We build ships to sail the open seas.

“So this government could seek sanctuary in some safe harbour. But that’s not what we were commissioned to do.”

Opposition parties have labelled tax harmonization a massive tax grab because it will increase the cost of many items currently exempt from the provincial levy with few exceptions.

It’s only “natural” for skittish Liberals to ask questions about eHealth and his government’s plan to merge the eight per cent provincial sales tax with the five per cent federal GST next July, Mr. McGuinty said.

And it’s his job to speak to reassure them, he added.

But it was Revenue Minister John Wilkinson who ended up responding to HST questions that came up during a question-and-answer session with the Liberal caucus on Friday night.

One woman from Mississauga, west of Toronto, who spoke up at the meeting asked whether her condo fees would go up.

“I’m wondering, since we’re living in such economic hard times, why this is a good time to implement the HST?” said the woman.

“And also, how are we getting a message out to all the negative comments that are in the paper and what we’re going to do to promote this HST if it’s such a good thing?”

A woman from the eastern Ontario city of Kingston also got up to seek assurances that the new tax scheme wouldn’t hurt non-profit charities, such as the seniors’ association she works for.

People “aren’t always believing” her when she tells them that the HST will be revenue-neutral, she said.

“I have to tell you that we’ve been hard hit by the recession,” she said. “And our association is terrified that the harmonized sales tax is going to put us over the tipping point.”

Condo fees won’t be subject to the harmonized tax, but some of the costs that make up the fees will, Wilkinson said. As for charities, the province has set up a series of HST rebates to ensure that those organizations won’t be punished by the new tax, he said.

Federal Liberal Leader Michael Ignatieff turned up Friday night in a show of party solidarity and praised Mr. McGuinty’s decision to go ahead with full-day kindergarten.

“When I see a Dalton McGuinty get up in the teeth of a recession, in the teeth of a deficit, and commit to full-day kindergarten, I am proud to be a Liberal,” he told the crowd.

Source | See also under Taxation: Copenhagen’s Plans for a New ‘Government’ are Scary | UK: Secret Plan for Euro Income Tax | Copenhagen, carbon, and the global corporate agenda | Electronic health is the boondoggle of boondoggles | IMF chief wants global bank tax | Canadian taxpayers on hook for any H1N1 vaccine damages | Ontario deficit $2.5B worse than expected due to drop in corporate tax | Ont. gives green energy price guarantee | If passed, HST locked in through 2012 | New HST tax is fair, McGuinty says | Thousands rally against coming HST tax in BC | Sarkozy launches carbon tax to help ’save the human race’ | Quebec’s photo radar starts ticketing | Flaherty offers taxpayer-funded bribe to adopt HST tax, holdout provinces demur | BC, like Ontario, moves to harmonize taxes | Vancouver kicks off quest for ways to fund transportation system | Cost Of US Bailout Hits A Whopping $24 Trillion Dollars | Ontario to subsidize electric cars as auto-sector boost | G8 Summit: Rich nations to pay green tab | G8 leaders see no early end to stimulus | Climate Cops To Fine “Wasteful” Homeowners & Businesses | Goldman Sachs: The Great American Bubble Machine | US cities may have to be bulldozed in order to survive | Ontario Liberals pressing to hide new ‘harmonized’ tax in prices | Ontario unveils cap-and-trade legislation | Economic stabilization may rely on carbon economy, economist says | ‘Smart meters’ set to boost prices, track your power consumption by time of day in Toronto | GM deal likely involves bigger sacrifices: McGuinty | With interest rates at zero, Fed looks at going negative | Revenue Canada destroys man’s life, refuses to pay for million-dollar mistake | NRTEE Carbon Market Panel is ‘Round Table on Socialist Planning’ | Climate panel presses for federal cap-and-trade system | Which Banks Will Rule? | Carbon tax resurfaces in Liberal policy proposal | Canada Revenue Agency employees arrested in corruption probe | Obama, Gore, tied to Chicago carbon exchange | Ontario to merge GST, PST in ‘harmonized’ tax hike | Ottawa considering aid for private broadcasters | Barclays bank gags Guardian newspaper over tax avoidance leaks | UK Central Bank begins using ‘new’ money | NY Times: Mileage Tax Would ‘Track Where Motorists Have Been’ | Stimulus needed now, Bank of Canada says | Terence Corcoran: Ontario’s green energy plan sneaks in feed-in taxes | Obama outlines ‘hard choices’ budget | Cost of Afghan mission jumps to $11.3-billion | GM wants twice as much taxpayer’s money | Behemoth budget bill to be rammed through parliament unread | Obama signs stimulus bill | Obama takes heat for third cabinet appointee that hasn’t paid taxes | Tories seek extra $331-million for Afghan mission | Fed infrastructure money requires provincial spending | All maxed out? Budget measures would improve credit access | UK Slips New Garbage Bin Taxes into Climate Bill | UK: ‘Spy-in-sky’ trials get the go-ahead despite Government promise to scrap road-pricing plan | Oregon Governor Wants GPS-Tracked Vehicle Mileage Tax | GTA Transit plan needs taxation, ‘governance’ powers | Is road-tolls fix running out of gas? | Ontario raises minimum price for beer | Toronto council approves plastic bag charge, bottle ban | Maybe we should look at Zimbabwe before trying to print our way out of a money crisis | Deficits ‘essential,’ Harper says | Road tolls called ‘inevitable’ | Now the consumer crunch: falling credit limits, rising interest rates | Federal government stages another retreat on road tolls | Federal Road Toll Meeting Sponsorship Kept Quiet Until After Election | Toronto Mayor David Miller hails new taxes on water, trash | New credit cards may shift unauthorized-transaction liabilities to the holder | The Bush gang’s parting gift: a final, frantic looting of public wealth | Is an Internet tax coming? | Metrolinx considering road tolls after all | Bailout is “petty cash”, Inflation is the Federal Reserve’s real crime | Toronto Mayor delays garbage tax grab for twelve months | Garbage bin fee hike possible before new RFID bins even hit the kerb | Next Federal Reserve bank bailout round could cost taxpayers 1$ Trillion Dollars | Central banks continue inflating global economy | Central Banks Move to Transfer Wealth from Taxpayers to Banks | For Toronto, road tolls, fees ‘on the menu’ | B.C. carbon tax kicks in on Canada Day | Road tolls, a bitter pill that works | Microchip bin tax scheme to go ahead despite failures | Feds Stealing from UI fund, Layton says | Time has come to put ‘price on waste and pollution’: Dion | Toronto Residents Furious Over RFID Garbage Bins | Pay-As-You-Drive Car Insurance | Is it time for toll roads? | Metrolinx Proposes Satellite Vehicle Tracking for Road Tolls

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