When hell freezes over.
B.C. Chamber of Commerce head John Winter believes that will be the day the anti-HST forces will win their fight to repeal the harmonized sales tax.
Winter had nothing but cold comfort for residents of B.C. in his one-hour meeting with The Citizen's editorial board.
Not only was he unequivocally in favour of downloading business's traditional tax burden on to the shoulders of the taxpayer, he wants more.
He unabashedly bashed virtually any tax on god-fearing business people, trumpeting his belief that what's good for business is good for British Columbians.
"We're not competing with Mississippi, for goodness sake. We're competing with Asia and the rest of the world," he said
Until you stop to think, Winter's tales all make perfect sense.
Let business flourish and we'll all be better off.
And, there's little doubt jobs will be created.
What goes almost unsaid however, is if business is not competing with Mississippi, or even Mississauga, where are the markets.
As more businesses create more global markets what happens to the Canadian consumer (read taxpayer)?
Business has traditionally had a symbiotic relationship with the taxpayer.
They were joined at the hip, if you will.
As that relationship begins to sever, so does business's interest.
When the market is global, not local, why not hang more and more of the tax burden around the consumer's neck.
The B.C. Chamber has a four-pronged approach to getting tax advantages for business.
The chamber wanted to make B.C. the most business-friendly province in the country by creating a better income tax structure, reduce corporate taxes and see the implementation of the HST.
Mission accomplished on the first two and while Winter wouldn't come right out and say it, step three is a virtual certainty.
And while the HST has become known as the hated sales tax, the final leg of the the B.C. Chamber's tax stool should scare you more than the spawn of Freddy Krueger and The Bride of Frankenstein.
Winter's fourth rail is property taxes.
He wants the burden of property taxes to "more equitably" represent the cost and benefit of those taxes.
Winter argues the tax a business pays should be based on the services it receives rather than the value of the land it occupies.
The difference in the tax hit between this proposal and the HST is like the difference between getting bitten by a mosquito and hit with a sledgehammer.
If, as a homeowner and a taxpayer, you've started to feel like a cash cow, just be thankful people like those running the B.C. Chamber of Commerce don't have their hands on the milking machine - yet.
