If you haven’t voted yet please read your HST vote form carefully because if you read it too fast you may make a mistake as to how you are voting.
Someone once asked me to speak to them in a child language so they could understand better. I talked with a few seniors and even others and they still were not clear to the HST vote.
If you vote to keep the HST you will not automatically drop to the 10 per cent rate as the government wants you to think. The TV/radio ads are very confusing and if you listen to it, sounds like if you vote to do away with the HST you will be going from 10 per cent to 12 per cent right now.
We are not at 10 per cent now and you will still be at 12 per cent till next year when it will only drop one per cent to 11 per cent and it will not be till 2013 when it will finally be at 10 per cent and there is no promise the government will keep their promises. If they want us to be at 10 per cent rate then do it immediately not two years from now.
If you vote to do away with the HST you will end up saving money because yes there will still be items that you will be paying 12 per cent on as you always have but under the PST/GST system you did not pay PST on many items and therefore many items only cost you five per cent.
If the government really wants to help everyone and give us 10 per cent tax rate then let’s go back to the PST/GST system and the items you now pay 12 per cent on will only be 10 per cent (PST- five per cent and GST- five per cent) and the items that were PST exempt before will still be that way and you will still then only pay five per cent GST. And it would be very nice if they did this right after the results of the vote.
For children and for seniors and families whose income is below $40,000 (remember that is combined income total) will receive a one time cheque for $175.
Hey, in my books that does not go very far and that is only one time you will receive that. But you will still be required to pay 12 per cent tax on items you purchase. All you have to spend is $1,400 and you will have eaten up the $175.
This will not help to improve the economy we are in. We are taxed enough now and many of the people who are on a fixed income who were just making it are now not making it and those who are making minimum wages or just a little above are not any better off. Also the money the government is collecting is not helping to ease health or education problems.
We have worked hard to get it to this point where the government listened and is now putting it to a vote, so let’s show them we mean what we say by voting to do away the excess tax of the HST. HST is not making more jobs they are still being lost, I haven’t seen any great savings in my purchases from items made by large companies, do you?
The HST ballot reads: Do you want to extinguish the HST and go back to the PST/GST system? (this means do you want to throw away the HST and go back to the old way). You can do this by putting a check mark or an X in the Yes circle.
Please vote and please vote carefully and also please return your vote in the mail.
D. Dietz
Penticton