HST Resources

An in-depth look at an issue important to all Ontarians

scrabbleThese days, we hear almost daily news about the pending implementation of a Harmonized Sales Tax (HST) in Ontario. Despite the massive benefits that the change is anticipated to bring to the province, the news has often been critical, ignoring the anticipated benefits in favour of a steady stream of negative pieces.

Naturally, we at the K-W Provincial Liberal Association are committed to reviewing both sides of the story, helping both our membership and our local citizens get a fairer, more balanced picture of the road ahead. From predictions that the move will help create hundreds of thousands of jobs over the next decade, to the HST’s role as only one part of a comprehensive tax package, many stories are being missed or glossed over in the public eye.

HST News

“Shame on Elizabeth Witmer”
December 2, 2009 - The Toronto Star’s Jim Coyle responds to the recent shenanigans in Ontario’s legislature, where Progressive Conservative leader Tim Hudak “let his party be defined by its least credible and most ridiculous MPPs.”

In his piece, Coyle not only addresses the crude behaviours by members of the PC caucus in response to the implementation of the HST, but is sure to call out how key members of that caucus - including Kitchener-Waterloo MPP Elizabeth Witmer - encouraged the behaviour by, among other things, “participating in the debasement of an institution in which they have worked honourably for decades.”

Read the full Toronto Star column

Debunking myths about the HST
November 25, 2009 - Understanding that the critical response to the HST had generated no small number of popular myths - fueled in part by the opposition leaders - two leading Ontario-based experts weighed in on the myths and benefits surrounding the HST.

Roger Martin, Dean of the University of Toronto’s Rotman School of Management, and James Milway, Executive Director of the Institute for Competitiveness and Prosperity, jointly authored an editorial to the Globe and Mail. In it, they address some of the most common HST myths, including:

  • the HST will increase prices paid by consumers

  • The HST is an excuse for producers and service providers to gouge consumers
  • The HST raises costs for small businesses
  • The HST hurts lower-income Ontarians
  • The HST is just a tax grab

Read the full Globe and Mail editorial

It’s about jobs, investment, and income
November 4, 2009 - A recent report by Jack Mintz, a Public Policy Chair at the University of Calgary, highlights that the implementation of the HST will see nearly 600,000 new jobs created over the next decade, as well as an increased capital investment of $47 billion and an annual increase in incomes by 8.8%.

Though Mintz, an expert in forecasting the impact of budgets, has been no small critic of the Ontario Liberal government in the past, his glowing review of the planned implementation led him to state that the “McGuinty government will go down in history for its leadership in moving ahead with a major tax reform that will only help the Ontario economy in the long run.”

More information on Mintz’ report
Short YouTube clip of Mintz’ response to the HST

“It’s a very bold step …”
October 21, 2009 - Unsurprisingly, opposition leaders Tim Hudak (PC) and Andrea Horwath (NDP) have been intensely critical about the Ontario Liberal government’s bold move to implement the HST in 2010. The Ontario Chamber of Commerce, a collective body that represents 160 chambers of commerce across the province, had something to say to them in an open letter:

“As you are well aware, the Ontario Chamber of Commerce has been a strong proponent of a harmonized sales tax - as an integral part of a larger, comprehensive tax reform strategy - for a number of years … with our economy facing a shortage of over half a million skilled workers over the next generation, sales tax reform will help to address that employment gap through increased productivity.”

Read the full Open Letter to Opposition Leaders
OCC’s press release applauding the HST