Tuesday April 27

Today began with some fiery questions on the HST. Carole was in true snarly form and tried her best to get Mr. Hansen to admit to being a devious troublemaker. Mr. Hansen worked hard to defend Bill 9 and actually made some relevant arguments in the process. He advocated for the passage of Bill 9 so as to protect British Columbians from having to pay both PST and HST. Hmmm.... He also said that the only things being charged HST in the interim would be articles intended for delivery after July 1st. This does not coincide with what Carole was talking about when she provided a litany of service providers offering deals before April 30th. This whole "buy now beat the HST" thing seems shifty though. Its a message box through and through. Neither the opposition or the government are providing us the public with an itemized breakdown.

Questions Carole should have asked

1) Can the minister provide a list of items that will cost less in an HST world?
2) How is it that hotel rooms will be cheaper when hotel operators are having to deal with an HST world?

Bruce Ralston then picked up the HST thread throwing around some bunk on how sports tickets will cost more after May 1st. Mr. Hansen says they'll only cost more after July 1st.

Questions Bruce should have asked:

1) Where will HST result in the creation of new jobs?
2) Where will small businesses make more profit under the HST?
3) Where will the economy profit under the HST?
4) How will the HST, a value added tax, result in more money in peoples pockets?

Jenny Kwan then jumped in to the HST debate by questioning Mr. Hansen's previous claim about the need for transitions rules to help cut off the PST from certain goods and services in advance of the introduction of the HST. Neither she nor Mr. Hansen did tell us good folks which goods and services they might be talking about. Like Bruce before her, Jenny asked Mr. Hansen of why roof repairs are going to cost more after May 1st. In hindsight, what difference does paying two additional months of taxes actually make? We all know that the Liberals are underhanded, I'd hope to heck though that they can keep an accurate tally of which items receive what tax.

Questions Jenny should have asked
1) How does getting rid of corporate income tax result in more jobs?
2) Whose facts are you using to claim that BC has the most dynamic economy? Where did you get the stat on 390,000 people?

It was then Bob Simpson's turn to try and jump on Mr. Hansen. Bobbo wasn't really paying attention to what Mr. Hansen was saying, preferring instead to step up the rhetoric when he asked "If everything is going to be cheaper post May 1st, why is everybody going to such great lengths to avoid paying the HST? If it's cheaper, why aren't they putting up billboards saying "pay later?" Such a question allowed Mr. Hansen to skip to his desired location and take a swipe at the 1990s NDP, he also spoke of how businesses will be able to get HST rebates.

Questions Bobbo should have asked
1) Will large and small businesses get the same rate of return on HST paid? Can you provide a breakdown of the expected returns for each level of business?
2) How is it that houses up to $550,000 in price will actually be lower after the HST?

A scary lady named Michelle Mungall then continued with the HST threat. As usual her question was kinda complicated when she drastically overreached the parameters of her questions (resort passes) by asking why the premier is making families struggle. I don't know about you, but I imagine a number of families would be struggling if they really committed themselves to actively utilizing a seasons pass at a ski hill before July 1st. Scary lady did however make a valuable point of the influence of the HST on Tourism. Everyone loves to go to places like Alberta and Oregon precisely because they have no consumer taxes.

In true form, Mr. Hansen ignored the scary lady, I don't blame him, and spoke instead on how the HST will again increase jobs. He also said that HST will result in more pay raises and more job security. Ah, Mr. Hansen, can you please source this argument for me?Are we just going to be paid more because things are going to cost more? That'd be nice, seems to me though that wages truly do not keep pace with inflation. Everyone who makes less that 100k a year knows this.

Impact of Harmonized Sales Tax on Arts and Culture

Spencer made his first showing in QP today. As usual he tried to make himself big and blustery, I just thought his question was useless as he failed to listen to Mr. Hansen's lesson on how HST will only be charged on products and services being delivered after July 1st.

Impact of Harmonized Sales Tax on Membership Costs
Ray Chouhan then tried to play the hardworking family angle, failing to listen and understand why the costco memberships already have HST on them.

Impact of Harmonized Sales Tax on Families

Mikey got up to ask more of the same, why hockey will cost more May 1st instead of after July 1st, yadayada.

Questions Mike Should have Asked
1) Where will these 113, 000 new jobs be? Will they be local? Will they be full time? Will they be permanent? Who will be paying the wages to these 1130,000 new employees.
2) Does the Minister recognize that the HST is a highly unpopular tax? Is the Minister concerned about his future electability if he passes this tax?
3) Can you please provide us with the literature which demonstrates how BC will gains so many benefits from increased taxation? Why do you still believe in these statistics after Jack Mintz
has been publicly discredited?

My Musings
Every question after the first question was a total waste. I'm sure there are more important things in the world than a negligible revenue neutral tax shift. Perhaps we could talk about how all the necessary social services are going to be paid for? As for all us poor british columbians who are going to be hardest hit by the HST, don't worry, we'll be fine so long as we're all signed up to receive our GST and HST rebates cheques. I love me my rebate cheques. So when Mr. Hansen say's the low income folks will be better off with the HST, I can concur and say, well yes, we will be receiving larger rebate cheques.

It's kinda fun being a student and having an excuse to be poor. And oh, if you look at the "answers" provided by Mr. Hansen, seems he tends to go into more depth when he is actually provided with a worthy opponent.