I've heard enough from political has-beens and wannabes using the HST for political posturing. It's time for the public to hear the truth. The economic reality in British Columbia is that we have too much debt and not enough taxpayers. The amount coming in falls far short of the amount owed. Every year the cost of doing business goes up, not only for us as individuals, but also for our government. The expense to maintain services at current levels, to pay for necessary repairs and maintenance, new infrastructures across the province, to pay off the massive debt inherited from the NDP, the Olympics, etc., is very real. As much as I despise taxes, they are a necessary evil until somebody comes up with a better way to pay the bills. Does anyone actually believe that if another political party was in power that it wouldn't also be forced to raise taxes? We've grown spoiled by years of tax reductions. Now we either increase taxes or cut much more from all public sectors.
If your family member needs life saving surgery, that without new funding might not be available, are you prepared to explain to him/her that it isn't available because you refused to pay a little extra tax? When even more schools close, and essential services no longer have the money to operate, who will really be to blame? A little history here folks; Under the NDP government British Columbia became the third highest taxed "country" in the world (with Germany and Japan). Am I a member or supporter of the ruling party? No. It doesn't matter who doles out our tax dollars, without a population increase higher taxes are unavoidable. B.C. has only grown on average by less than 77,000 persons per year since 2006. Most of those new citizens won't pay taxes for decades. Take a moment and do the math. X amount of debt, divided by Y amount of taxpayers equals Z amount of debt per person. The more taxpayers, the less debt load per person, it's that simple. If you don't want higher taxes, do something about it! Get cleaned up, take your spouse out for a romantic dinner and when you get home, help build a better B.C.
Bill Dwyer
Prince George BC
