Yes, I am still on vacation- some lovely photos on the way – but two things happened in the last 24 hours that made the bile rise in my throat, and I can no longer contain myself.
First bile raising incident: I had a brief discussion yesterday with someone who mentioned this whole HST thing was a big mistake because all that revenue could have gone to schools and now that the government has to pay it back we are going to have less money for those things than ever. I might add this statement came from a highly educated and smart person whom I respect highly, but I suspect like many people, has not taken the time to really look at the numbers or facts that fail to support this statement.
Second bile raising moment: Reading the CKNW ticker this morning heralding increased costs on goods and items shipped by trucks because of the 13% hit to trucking companies bottom line with the demise of the HST.
From the NW website: BC Trucking Association President Louis Yako says losing the input tax credits the HST provided will translate to a 13% hit to trucking companies bottom line.
Yako says paying for the cost hikes will have to come from where it always comes from when it gets passed down to trucking customers and eventually to BC consumers.
She adds when the costs trickle down it will be BC consumers who end up paying higher prices for goods requiring shipment via truck.
Yako says trucking companies by design are very tightly run effecient outfits in order to be competitive and don’t absorb added costs easily.
She says the trucking industry and other business sectors would like to work with the government on PST improvements to help soften the blow
Wow. Where to begin with all this misinformation and incorrect perceptions, that are ably being assisted by many in the media?
Let’s start with the truckers association predicting doom, gloom and higher prices passed onto the consumer as a result of losing the HST tax credits. This story is one of the worst I have seen so far and the reporter on this did himself a huge discredit by not asking a couple of key questions of Ms. Yako.
First, the trucking companies were absolutely saving substantially with the increased tax credits under the HST, as were a lot of businesses. Great for them, but did those savings get passed onto the consumer ? Absolutely not, those savings were pocketed by the trucking companies and other businesses, which increased their bottom lines, or perhaps offset higher costs elsewhere. Either way, there was no trickle down consumer benefit, so why now that we are returning to the old PST/GST system truckers have been using forever, does the consumer need to be penalized ? Poppycock. There are a couple truckers in my family and I know a lot more, many of whom are readers. If the Louis Yako can provide me one example where the savings to truckers under the HST were passed onto the consumer, I will gladly support the price increase back. But she won’t be able to, and we all know it. It’s more fear-mongering.
As for all the HST revenue and the money we must now pay back that is going to take sooooo much out of our budget- or not, depending on who in the Liberals is speaking- that too is a massive pile of manure of the freshest quality.
This government spent a very long time, and a lot of taxpayers dollars, trying to convince us this tax was revenue neutral, which is a lie. It is a cash cow, and will continue to be a cash cow not only our province, but also the federal government for the 18 months required termination notice that must be given in writing to the federal government, as per the CITCA agreement.
Herein lies the catch. The agreement signed between the feds and the finance minster only allows for an 18 months notice of termination AFTER the 5 year anniversary date of the implementation date …or 18 months immediately upon a material breach of this agreement, which has obviously occurred with this referendum.
Either way, the province is required to pay back the transition money. Now, if I were in our befuddled premiers shoes,( have you watched her performance in these CBC videos?) I would go right to Harper, hand him the official written notice and lay it on the line that he would do well to forgive the debt owed by the province in consideration of the extensive revenues the feds have already received, and will continue to received until the PST/GST is reinstated. After all, Harper was as much behind this deception as the Liberals were and that should never be forgotten.
Time to get back to how the loss of the HST revenue and the debt to the feds would have gone to education etc etc….
Give me a break. This government has been ignoring the crisis in Surrey schools now for years. In my neighbourhood alone, several hundred new homes were built over the spring and summer, just in time for new families to move into a school catchment with a school that is grossly overloaded at only a few years old. A 4 classroom addition had to be built to accommodate last years extra students- on top of the portables already brought in the year earlier- with no accounting for these several hundred new homes built since that time, and the first day of school next week at one particular school will again, be a joke, with students bearing the brunt.
Why is that?
Because the BC liberals have refused to fork over desperately needed funds to accommodate the only rapidly growing school district in the province, for years. Years ! Surrey has not seen an increase in capital funding since 2005, so this is clearly not an HST revenue issue, this is a government priority issue.
And although Falcon promised more money would be coming back in June, now he isn’t returning phone calls. I guess it takes a certain kind of person to lie to kids, doesn’t it?
Image from http://www.bclocalnews.com/surrey_area/cloverdalereporter/news/117442553.html
But hey, who am I to judge the priorities of the premier who loves watching MANSWERS in order to find out how big boobs have to be to actually crush a beer can?
After the years of Campbell and crew rampant tax cuts that looked good to voters but gutted the provinces revenues, I think fellow blogger RossK came up with the best solution of all in my comments section.
” Lisa P.’s comment, way above, is the reason I am willing to pay more income tax, tomorrow.
Why?
Because while I cannot afford a $55,000 luxury car, I can afford to pay a little more so those who don’t have as much (as I also once did not) can make a go of it.
Thanks Laila, et al. for looking out for the folks like Lisa that really and truly do need those PST exemptions. “
I agree. Low income families, singles and seniors pay very little personal income taxes, if any. But there are many, many people in BC who can afford to pay a little more and did pay a lot more before Campbell came in and decimated the provincial tax revenue base with repeated and excessive cuts designed to create a contrived financial crisis. ( this link is a must read for those still believing the Campbell years were so golden) Raising personal income taxes for higher income earners and raising corporate taxes is a very real, and very feasible solution and simply reverses those cuts made in the Campbell era. And that solution does not hurt those who can’t afford to pay anymore.
The lies, the threats and the misinformation coming from this clearly not families first government must end, and the media must do their job by asking the hard questions of people like Louis Yako who tells us truckers must pass on the costs of losing the HST to consumers – even though the savings never were.
They must question why there is money for trips to China and travelling photo opportunities all over the province, and no money for new schools to ensure our children are learning well, in safe environments without crushing populations.
And you must all start by helping to educate those around us who may not know the truth behind this governments media assisted facade. I would suggest a start with a pointed commentary written by fellow blogger and retired journalist, Harvey Oberfeld. And be sure to click on his home page for his latest post, then follow that with a jaunt over to RossK for his take on the ” collective punishment” being meted out as well.
{ A heartfelt thank you to my faithful readers today, old and new, as we celebrate a remarkable milestone with this post, which is the 1000th post published on www.lailayuile.com . May we carry on for another thousand! }
Westcoast Views with Laila Yuile 
Yako is Wacko.
This is all fear mongering.
Lies, and more Lies.
the trucking industry costs have a connection to gas prices. Isn’t it funny how gas prices went down prior to the vote results being released to what they are right now: 1.37.
All of the so called industry leaders can blabber and blubber all the lies they can muster. We aint buying this BS nor their over valued products.
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Lynn, paid $1.22 for gas this weekend, and saw it as low as $1.19 in the Fraser Canyon, where it must be trucked out further. Go figure.
Kim, that is a story that needs to be told.. hint hint! Duct tape has it’s uses, but not as a solution to holding together elderly construction of our schools!
Thanks Cheryl, Kim, surprised myself when I saw that after posting this blog post. Who would have known? Yes all this new round of propaganda really bothers me, because so many don’t know the numbers and figures. Clark has been handing out money left right and centre and all one needs to do to see that is go back and read the releases in the BC government newsroom. She is highly unqualified to run this province,let alone under a families first banner. This from the woman who thinks private schools should be funded with public money.
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Congratulations on your thousanth post Laila, and thank you for continuing this important work, it is needed as never before!
The local highschool in Langford, which serves 2,000 kids, has duct-tape holding it together. The kids and local families have started a facebook group to petition for a new school. 3 generations of local kids have walked those halls. Meanwhile, Langford’s Mayor has built a bridge to nowhere in support of his failed Bear Mountain Resort developer/hockey player friends.
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Happy 1000th post buddy. I expect to see at least one million more….
As Lynn says – Yako is wacko…..these people just never give up, do they?
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Congrats on your 1000th post, Laila. I’m a relatively new reader and am very impressed with your blogs. You really tell it like it is. Too bad our mainstream media find itself unable to do the same.
You are advising folks to read Harvey Oberfeld’s blog as well. Good advice. I would also include Rafe Mair, Bill Tieleman and Norman Farrell as ‘must read’ material. (If I’ve forgotten anyone, my apologies).
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Thank you gini and I have enjoyed your comments here as well. I do encourage readers to check out all the links on my blogroll,which include all of the above, as well as a variety of federal and provincial blogs and sites that I always read for alternative views. Take what you like and leave what you don’t and contribute what you can is my motto! Glad to have you on board and in particular as we move into what promises to be a politically vicious fall~
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I went looking for the CITCA agreement today, and of course I became interested in knowing who was the author of the document….. it was someone who called themselves Jamedwar….. didn’t take long on the internet to find that his real name and job description is:
Jamie Edwardson
Communications Manager
Ministry of Finance
250 356-9872
Meanwhile, the good citizens of BC were still reacting to the Not-on-the-radar-HST implementation, it could have been stopped in its tracks before the Feds started making the payments. Everyone knew that the initiative was going on, everyone knew the probable results, but still, the BC Liberals on April 29, 2010 passed the Consumptions Tax Rebate and Transition Act that eliminated the PST. And within seven days the monies started to roll in to shore up Premier Gordon Campbell’s underestimated Budget because of this provision in the DEAL with Canada.
If the Province is not considered to have, at or before the time set forth in the table below,
committed a material breach of the Agreement, Canada will, at that time, pay to the Province
the amount set opposite that time in the table to be applied toward satisfaction of the Assistance
Amount:
Time Amount
within 7 days of the tabling by the
Province of legislation to wind-down
the Provincial Sales Tax of the
Province
$750 million
on the first business day following
the Implementation Date
$374 million
on the first business day following
the day that is one year after the
Implementation Date
“Assistance Amount”??????? The kickback is called an Assistance Amount?
You’d think that the Courts would have put a STOP ORDER on Colin Hansen’s signature on the the CITCA document until last week.
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Campbell, Hansen and Harper scam the BC people, for the HST. Now we have to pay Harper back, for stealing from us.
Same as Campbell’s theft and sale of the BCR. We had to pay Campbell for thieving it. Our tax dollars that De Jong lifted from us, went to pay the two patsies who took the fall for Campbell’s theft. However, the two patsies were told, if they kept their mouths shut, they would be looked after…By who??? Well the tax payers of course.
Not only is BC rotten with corruption. Harper has dirtied Canada’s good name too. He tried to con Europe into believing, the dirty tar sands oil was clean energy. They don’t like Harper as it is. Harper needed someone, with no morals or ethics, to push the dirty oil onto Europe. Campbell more than fills the crapper. If the Brits catch Campbell telling his lies, or bribing, they will tear him to pieces. The paparazzi over there, aren’t muzzled or bought off as our media is either.
Do you know? The peoples anger is not going away, for the BC Liberals. I thought winning the HST referendum, would take the anger away..But the rage is just as acute as ever. I know I am still P.Oed, but, I thought that was just me. I have never been able to abide, liars and thieves. However, I am certainly not alone.
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forgot about the great work on this blog. Have to come around more often…
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The Campbell/Christy BC Liberals, are like pathological liars. They have no credibility left.
We all knew the BC Liberals dirty tactics, would go into high gear when we won the referendum. They didn’t disappoint us. The only thing we can trust the Liberals on, are their lies and deceit.
There is no point, trying to use the courts or judges, they are all pro Liberal. So are the police, Elections BC, and the media. In BC, corruption governs. The very reason, BC is failing, also why, BC is the most corrupt province in Canada.
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If the HST is so beneficial to BC citizens. Why are they spending billions shopping in Alberta, the U.S. and on line? Why aren’t they shopping at home?
Even if the HST is dropped, the BC people will continue shopping in the U.S. Citizens are saving up to 50%, by shopping in the U.S…and in Alta too. I will continue to buy through the underground co-op.
For all the time, the HST has been imposed on the BC people, there were no good paying jobs created by big business, as promised. BC family’s are not saving money, that was to trickle down from big business.
The HST is nothing other than a hoax, to take from the people, to give to big business and Harper.
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I don’t know if anyone else has pointed out that all business that collect GST will still have a 5% input tax credit after the tax goes back to the way that it was. I sure that this trucker spokesperson knows this, and so is just not telling the truth to talk about a 12% loss.
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Thank you for posting this Mike, yes I am aware of that and I think most business people do, but not the general public at large!! Always great to have readers bring these important points up so we have the truth at hand~
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