Commentary

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June 29, 2010

by: Ross Kentner

History, we know, repeats itself, and it’s about to do so again on Canada Day when the HST comes into effect. Remember how we all loved to hate its predecessor the GST? That’s because when it was added to the PST we all felt the pinch.

HST, how do I hate thee? Let me count the ways. Well, just for starters, how inappropriate for our governments to find another pocket in the taxpayers pants on Canada Day of all days!

I hate that the federal and provincial governments ganged up on us. Conservative PM Stephen Harper bribed Liberal Premier Dalton McGuinty to "harmonize" the goods and services tax with the provincial sales tax. Then McGuinty bribed us with our own money, sort of like crushing the pill on a spoon of brown sugar the way your mother used to.

I hate that it’s been sugar coated as a modern, best practice, business-friendly tax bound to create 600-thousand new jobs in Ontario. Bet most of them will be working for bean counters which adds empty calories instead of horsepower to the economy.

I hate that at a time when too many Ontario children are becoming diabetic and too many Ontario adults are obese, we’re going to put a big tax on joining a gym or health club or signing the kids up for hockey.

I hate that the new tax will make it tougher for the most vulnerable members of our society to take the bus, to set the thermostat to 70 in winter, or see a lawyer if they need one.

I hate that tickets to Meaford Hall, the Roxy and the Gaiety will all go up even though these tiny pockets of culture in our communities struggle for their very survival.

And I hate that no Philadelphia lawyer nor the brightest chartered accountant in the land could tell us what we are really paying for a litre of gasoline in this country because, as we all know, there are already more taxes on gas than Carter has liver pills as they used to say, and now there’s 8% more.

Commentary, with Ross Kentner, can be heard on 560 CFOS Tuesdays & Thursdays at 7:08 am and 5:08 pm