Answerable Questions

It was another HST days in QP today. I sure hope they change things up a bit tomorrow, the HST is a tad boring. I suppose it could get interesting though if the NDP actually learned to ask some good questions. Anyhoo, here are my coles notes:

Mr. Hansen cut Carole off short today in QP with a zinger. Admittedly, there she was today talking about a lack of consumer confidence, when just yesterday she bemoaned a consumer rush to beat the HST. Kudos to Mr. Hansen for actually listening to and remembering what he says in QP:D Carole's follow up questions on whether the BC government will present as much information as the Ontario government on which items will be hit by the HST seemed pretty silly. The Liberal government has been maintaining a website about the immediate financial implications for consumers for a while now. I'm inclined to think the Liberals are disinclined to lie about something they could so easily be held to account for. I quite enjoyed Mr. Hansen's efforts to try and portray the NDP as wanting to make the general public pay both the PST and the HST. What is better though, is this press release from the Liberal War Chest praising the Liberals for "abolishing" the PST. I don't think tucking away is the same as abolishing. Finance Critic Bruce Ralston jumped in to accomplish about the same as Carole did, which of course was nothing. Same for Dougie D.

No wait, I take that back. Dougie D did manage to pull yet another quote from Carole Taylor's recent interview, unlike the quotes used yesterday, this one was actually kinda relevant. The quote involved Ms. Taylor's speculations on increased border traffic for consumer purposes in the wake of continued parity and the impended implementation of the HST. Mr. Hansen didn't like that though, he marked his submission with silence on the issue.

As for Mr. Hansen's reference to a recent Conference Board of Canada report "Harmonize Consumption Taxes to Improve Economic Efficiency" the way he references the article doesn't really appear consistent with what the article appears to be about. The article speaks about the benefits of a nationally harmonized sales tax, it is only 9 pages long so I highly doubt it also touches upon the "benefits" of the supposed benefits for the isolated provincial implementation.

Shane Simpson then started talking about real estates and the HST. I probably should have researched the issue a little bit for you, so as to cut through some of the discrepancies between what the NDP and the Liberals say. I couldn't stop laughing though over Mr. Hansen's second zinger of the day when called out Shane's use of "averages."

Nicholas Simmons then started talking about kids, summer camps, and the HST. He also cited some policy researcher, Jon Kesselman, who has said that low income folks will be worse off with the HST. Mr. Hansen corrected him on this, if you look to yesterday's post you'll see that I agree. We all know the middle class will be hardest hit. Gary Coons then jumped into ask why the parents of poor church kids will have to pay more for summer camp. I don't know about you but I'm not any more inclined to trust the churchies than I am Mr. Hansen.

Questions the NDP should have asked
1) Will the minister acknowledge that perhaps research on the economic benefits of the HST in the Atlantic provinces is not comparable because unlike here in BC, the introduction of the HST in the Atlantic provinces saw a reduction in overall tax rates?
2) How does the HST help the forestry sector? Are these monies directed towards helping the forestry sectors monies that will stay in BC, or international pockets?
3) All the questions I suggested yesterday that they ask.

Today's Little Bit of Excitement

Robin asked the Minister why some teacher on the mainland got fired for being a lesbian parent. Perhaps she was fired because she was a bad teacher? Or maybe she was just let go because the school districts have no money?

Here's to hoping the Opposition tries to cover a different topic tomorrow.