“Most of these statements, if not all, people once thought of as principles the BC Liberal Party supported”

For those who stop by on a regular basis to read my blog, you’ll have noted yesterday’s post, which was entitled “Under Premier Clark's leadership we've seen increased costs to businesses in BC, and to middle class families, who continue to fall farther and farther behind".

In part of the post I noted that:

 … many British Columbians, including business owners, are asking if this government truly represents free-enterprise, and the workers it employs?

I went on to say that:
If you ask people in the Kamloops area, to define this government's claim to representing so-called 'free enterprise', you’ll be met with varying responses. Whether business owners, or their employees trying to raise a family and keep a roof over their head, neither can see how this BC Liberal Government has helped them keep a few more dollars in their pockets.

BC businesses have faced not only the increase in corporate tax rates, but also user fees which penalize their business growth.

That led my nephew, a fellow blogger to respond by saying:
Earlier today - BC Conservative Kamloops Regional Director (and Kamloops blogger) Alan Forseth took the BC Liberals' to task over its' fiscal policies including a possible corporate tax hike schedule to take place in 2013.

For BC Conservatives' to continually 'squawk off' about BC Liberal fiscal policies is really getting old because if they truly want to become government in 2013 and want to rid this province of the fiscal deficit (caused by external forces), then they need to say how they'll make up ditching the carbon tax and which provincial services (healthcare, education, social services, transportation, etc) they'll dump in order to bring the provincial books to balance.  Sound bites won't do.  Actual list of services that BC Conservatives' will dump is now needed as the voters' of this province need to know how each political party will serve the best interests of this province from 2013-2018.

Well Steve ... as much as I appreciate your comments, you'll note that the basis for my blog post was ultimately the comments of the BC business community, which I happen to agree with.  Just to be clear, the comments I included, I believe, made a strong case for what I had to say:

… BC food producers have said the carbon tax hurts their bottom line

… the Business Council of BC has described the carbon tax as unfair because BC based businesses pay the tax, but their competitors from outside of the province do not.

…  Shachi Kurl, director of provincial affairs for BC and Yukon for the Canadian Federation of Independent Business said … “The costs of doing business are starting to become unsustainable.”  Kurl added that rising hydro and other utility costs, as well as the carbon tax, are other increases businesses have faced in recent years.  “All of this is coming out of the same till.”

… the Cariboo Cattlemen’s Association says the carbon tax continues to put ranchers at a competitive disadvantage ... “we’re paying the tax and there’s no investment coming back... into the sector to reduce our carbon footprint ... either exempt us from the tax or get a program in place to provide some benefits back to us.”

And the Fraser Institute stated that:

… competitive personal income tax rates enable the province to better retain and attract high-skilled professionals as well as promote entrepreneurship and innovation in BC.

Again, those comments make sense to me --- they are things I have been saying, and commenting on now, for a year and a half.

This government has a problem keeping taxes, fees, and utility rates under control … both for business, and BC’s middle-class.  I know it … the people of BC know it … and now even the business community is speaking out on it.

So Steve, what I fail to understand is why you would shoot the messenger?

"Under Premier Clark's leadership we've seen increased costs to businesses in BC, and to middle class families, who continue to fall farther and farther behind"

BC based businesses pay the Carbon Tax, but their
competitors from outside of the province do not

As BC businesses question the BC Government's decision to move forward with the corporate tax increase; many British Columbians, including business owners, are asking if this government truly represents free-enterprise, and the workers it employs?

It doesn’t, and for good reason.  If you ask people in the Kamloops area, to define this government's claim to representing so-called 'free enterprise', you’ll be met with varying responses. Whether business owners, or their employees trying to raise a family and keep a roof over their head, neither can see how this BC Liberal Government has helped them keep a few more dollars in their pockets.

BC businesses have faced not only the increase in corporate tax rates, but also user fees which penalize their business growth.

Don’t take my word for it … here’s the thoughts and opinions of business leaders in British Columbia:

BC food producers have said the carbon tax hurts their bottom line.

The Business Council of BC has described the carbon tax as unfair because BC based businesses pay the tax, but their competitors from outside of the province do not.

Shachi Kurl, director of provincial affairs for BC and Yukon for the Canadian Federation of Independent Business said … “The costs of doing business are starting to become unsustainable.”  Kurl added that rising hydro and other utility costs, as well as the carbon tax, are other increases businesses have faced in recent years.  “All of this is coming out of the same till.”

Cariboo Cattlemen’s Association says the carbon tax continues to put ranchers at a competitive disadvantage ... “we’re paying the tax and there’s no investment coming back... into the sector to reduce our carbon footprint ... either exempt us from the tax or get a program in place to provide some benefits back to us.”

And from the Fraser Institute comes the following:

Competitive personal income tax rates enable the province to better retain and attract high-skilled professionals as well as promote entrepreneurship and innovation in BC

And … middle-class British Columbians not only face continuing increases to the rates and fees they pay to government (such as increased medical payments and insurance rates), they also pay higher rates for food, and other necessities, due to the carbon tax.

Is this what a Family First, or Free Enterprise agenda, looks like?

Kevin Falcon, Christy Clark, and BC Liberals at odds with reality on HST

Taxpayers really the ones to cover
the cost of HST rebate cheques

Those who are paying the HST, should be asking who does it really impact?  In my reading, there seems to be some confusion between business, the BC government, and the Minister of Finance. 

On page #23 of a report prepared for the Business Council of BC, (CONSUMER IMPACTS OF BC’S HARMONIZED SALES TAX) it states, “In short, while BC’s HST does entail burdens for households except at lower incomes, this study has found those burdens to be far smaller than commonly believed.”

Of interest to taxpayers in BC however is a media release dated April 5^th, from the Ministry of Finance (011FIN0029-000341), which has the following direct quote from Finance Minister Kevin Falcon:

BC Politics … the week of February 27th

BC Politics ... the week of
Feb 27th to Mar 6th

Most of what the news has been filled with this past week was the leadership win by Christy Clark … and her first cabinet get-together. That said, this weekends news summary has much with regards to that, BUT there are also several stories about, and with reference to, the BC Conservative party.

By the way, just in case you missed the news, the most recent federal political survey shows the Conservative Party at 48% vs. the Liberals at 22%.  With that in mind I believe it is very hard to debate the point that conservative minded voters provincially have only been supporting the BC Liberal party because they felt they had no other option.  Looks like that is about to change however.

Anyways … now here’s some of the political news stories from the past week … enjoy!

Now available … “HST Math for Dummies”

Yesterday in the Vancouver Sun, columnist Don Cayo had a brief story entitled “The HST’s total impact on BC prices well under 1%”.  The following two paragraphs are the story in its entirety:

What might he be saying? Perhaps,"I think
the effect of the HST will be about this much"

The impact varies according to your income and spending habits, but for the average British Columbian the impact of the HST has been less, according to a just-released study, than most experts predicted. And much, much less than many of the tax's critics have claimed.

Jon Kesselman, the Canada Research Chair in Pubic Finance and Simon Fraser University, has calculated the overall impact on the price of consumer purchases at 0.6 per cent, based on StatsCan data on price changes and spending patterns, and factoring in inflation.

I guess perhaps columnists for the Vancouver Sun make enough money they can just kiss off any increase the provincial government decides to throw at us.  Stating that the impact of the HST has only amounted to an increase of .6% of course does make it sound very small … but let’s look at this in “real” dollars and cents.