Fight The HST

Dec 19 2017, 12:17 pm


With July 1st getting closer many in the nation are getting ready to celebrate our country’s birthday. On that same day people in BC will be reminded that they are now going to get scalped an extra 7% for pretty much everything they spend their hard earned dollars on. Now for the record, I voted Liberal last election and until the NDP cleans up its act and comes out of bed with the local unions that will not change (I may be young but I remember the 90’s), because for me right now there is no other alternative. Enter the Zalm, Bill Vander Zalm is leading the charge against the HST, perhaps to resurrect his political career or he is beginning to put the pieces in place for another political party alternative to the Liberals and NDP (my apologies to the Green party).

I’ve done a quick calculation on what the impact of the HST will have on the average Vancity Buzz reader on per month basis based on average expenses for certain items. The items were pulled from an HST hit list compiled by FightHST.com, click on the web link for the full list and a lot more.

  • Meals: $200 (Going out adds up and this is a conservative figure)
  • Bus Tickets: $110 (walk or bike if you can, if you live too far from, well that’s your fault)
  • Cell Phone Bill: $70 (for those with shitty deals and data plans this may be higher)
  • Cable/Internet: $120 (this price goes up if you are one of the people that purchases xxx movies ha ha)
  • Magazines/papers: $30 (be smart and get the 1 yr subscriptions and save some money)
  • Haircuts: $40 (Ask your barber if they’re willing to take cash and save some money)
  • Movies: $30 (time to start downloading movies, perhaps?) 
  • Groceries: $400 (healthy eating is good for you, not your wallet. Maybe we go back to the mac and cheese diet)
  • Strata fees: $250 (only if you own your own place, if you don’t don’t worry about it)
  • Entertainment: $300 (I know this is a conservative figure for some but over the course of the year I think its a fair average, Canucks tickets alone would equal that)
  • Miscellaneous: $300 (sometimes in life the unexpected happens)

That comes to a grand total of $1850 a month in expenses. Like I stated earlier this is an average, some will be higher and some lower. That figure translates to an additional $129.50 a month out of your pocket and $1554 for the year.

Now on the flip side, there are some valid reasons to bring the HST on board. For one the BC government is facing a deficit and that initial cash injection of around $1.6 billion from the feds will help. The introduction of the HST is also supposed to eliminate bureaucracy. What happens to the PST departments? It’s also supposed to be better for businesses and the case is being made that the savings will be passed on to the consumer. Again, we’ll have to wait and see.

All I know is that the Zalm can try his darndest, but the Liberals will put this tax in place and in a few years it will become just like the GST something we just pay.

At the end of the day I just want governments to be run more efficiently and effectively, apparently that is too much to ask for.

DH Vancouver StaffDH Vancouver Staff

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