VICTORIA 鈥� By now you鈥檝e probably seen part of the B.C. government鈥檚 鈥渟tick man鈥� ad campaign to raise awareness of the harmonized sales tax.
Stick men, or rather stick persons, sort out conflicting claims about the tax by going to the B.C. government鈥檚 website to get an accurate summary of what is and isn鈥檛 costing them more.
Later versions will no doubt feature stick persons checking their mail for brochures offering arguments for and against the HST, and of course, those all-important mail-in ballots that will arrive in June.
This is an urgent pre-requisite to an informed vote. Anyone who listens in to a telephone town hall or phone-in show, or gets reader feedback such as I receive, knows that the basic facts are still widely misunderstood.
So what does the NDP opposition focus on? The ads cost $5 million, grumbles NDP finance critic Bruce Ralston. Add that to town halls and mailers and the referendum funding boils down to $7 million for pro-HST and a mere $250,000 for the FightHST effort.
This is a classic 鈥渟traw man鈥� argument, where one sets up a false premise and then knocks it down. The ads do not advocate, they merely inform.
Stikine MLA Doug Donaldson propped up the NDP鈥檚 oldest scarecrow, that big 鈥淟iberal donor corporations鈥� are the main beneficiaries of the HST. This is a vital point for rural B.C., which depends on resource industries with huge machinery investments, and he has it exactly wrong.
In fact the entire 鈥榖ig business benefits most from HST鈥� narrative is false.
Vancouver tax lawyer David Robertson points out that this is one of the 鈥渕yths and misrepresentations鈥� propagated by Bill Vander Zalm, who has effectively set NDP tax policy since their limping retreat on the carbon tax.
In 24 pages, Robertson has written the clearest analysis I鈥檝e seen so far, including a thorough demolition of Vander Zalm's crude scare campaign known as FightHST, which has singled out banks and large resource companies.
Robertson notes that banks are actually worse off.
鈥溾�nlike most businesses, banks, financial institutions and insurance companies cannot recover GST/HST they pay on expenses,鈥� he writes. They actually pay more under HST than they did under the old provincial sales tax (PST).
As for FightHST鈥檚 other specified villains, 鈥渓arge corporations鈥� and 鈥渓arge resource companies,鈥� their machinery and production equipment were long ago exempted from sales tax. No change there.
鈥淲hat the PST legislation did not contain were PST exemptions aimed specifically at small, independent businesses,鈥� Robertson writes.
鈥淪o construction workers like welders, plumbers, electricians and other tradespersons had to pay an additional seven per cent PST on their work trucks, tools and equipment that they used to earn a living; retailers and corner store operators had to pay an additional seven per cent on their shelving, refrigerators and cash registers; accountants and other professionals had to pay PST on their office furniture, computers and software; truckers had to pay an additional seven per cent PST on their truck tractors and trailers 鈥︹�� and so forth.
This is what the HST fixes.
Obviously, Big Labour doesn鈥檛 like all these independent contractors. Therefore the NDP must also 鈥渇ight鈥� HST.
I鈥檝e mentioned before that the NDP-Vander Zalm axis of nonsense wants to deprive the poor of a modest tax shift in their favour, paid for by voluntary purchases of more affluent consumers.
I鈥檝e talked about the trend towards self-employment and small business as the Canadian economy adapts in a fast-changing world. You may not like that trend, and you may wish that everyone could have a union job with an employer-subsidized pension.
That鈥檚 not what is happening today.
Tom Fletcher is legislative reporter and columnist for Black Press and BCLocalnews.com
tfletcher@blackpress.ca
twitter.com/tomfletcherbc
