I Have Ben Saying This For Months.......

HST hearings told seniors will be hit hardest

Updated: Thu Dec. 03 2009 5:18:01 PM

The Canadian Press

TORONTO — Seniors will be among the hardest hit by a 13 per cent single sales tax in Ontario and won't forget that fact in the next election, opponents of the harmonized sales tax told a legislative committee Thursday.

Ontario will merge its eight per cent sales tax with the five per cent GST on July 1, raising the price on items currently exempt from the PST including gasoline, home heating fuel and services such as dry cleaning, hair cuts and funerals.

"Even in death the (harmonized sales tax) shows no mercy," Paul Bailey, president of the Police Pensioners Association of Ontario, told the committee in the first of two days of public hearings.

"Seniors will die and their families, those on fixed incomes and limited support, will be forced to pay an additional cost to bury their loved ones. Our question to government is: Why are you targeting seniors?"

Bailey warned the Liberals they would face the wrath of the province's elderly in the 2011 election if the HST is implemented.

"Our coalition will continue to oppose the HST and we will see you at the next election because, as you know, of all large groups, seniors are the ones most likely to vote," he said.

Gerald Gibson, who represents about 4,000 condominium owners -- many of them elderly -- said the HST will drive up condo fees between six to seven per cent because it will apply to all the services condo corporations must hire, from auditors and reserve fund specialists to groundskeeping and management.

"It will apply most unfairly to condominium owners," said Gibson, who said his condo fee of $800 a month could go up $50 a month, or $600 a year.

Seniors will be hit hard when the harmonized tax is applied to everything from gasoline to mutual funds, but the Liberal government doesn't want to hear that, Bailey said.

"We haven't gone in there asking for exemptions because, quite frankly, they haven't even offered consultations around the province," Bailey said after his committee appearance.

"They're just paying lip service to us here, and then they're just going to ram it through anyway."

The Certified General Accountants of Ontario was the first group to speak in favour of the single sales tax, which it said would help businesses by lowering input costs and, therefore, be good for the economy.

Simplifying tax compliance for businesses "will save an estimated $500 million annually in reduced administrative costs," said association CEO Doug Brooks. The new tax would also, among other things, eliminate approximately $5 billion in embedded provincial sales tax that businesses absorb annually, he added.

"It is anticipated that 80 per cent of business savings will flow through to consumers within one year of implementation."

The Canadian Taxpayers' Federation blasted the Liberal government for going ahead with the harmonized sales tax in the face of widespread public opposition.

"This will have an impact on Ontarians, and your disregard and the fact that you don't give a dang is a problem," spokesman Kevin Gaudet told the Liberals on the committee.

"Your arrogance and disregard is a problem."

Conservative Lisa MacLeod, who sits on the finance committee, said she's worried the government will pay absolutely no attention to those who complain the HST will hurt them because it doesn't really want to hold public hearings.

"What we've heard from government members suggests we're just going through the motions in committee," said MacLeod.

"We're going to see on Monday whether this is indeed a sham. We think it is a PR stunt."

After staging a two-man sit-in in the legislature and other protests to force public hearings on the HST, the Progressive Conservatives complained again Thursday that there will be only two days of consultations, and vowed to introduce a series of amendments during Monday's hearing.

The government only agreed to add Monday's half day of hearings after the NDP used a procedural move that would have had Thursday's committee hearing start at one minute after midnight.

The Liberal government noted it is also cutting personal and corporate taxes by billions of dollars, and offering rebate cheques of up to $1,000 to some families in the first year to offset the impact of the HST.

Letters to the Editor

By SUN READERS

There has been lots of rhetoric around this HST but it appears this tax is a done deal, whether or not we taxpayers even understand it. Calling Dalton McGuinty a liar may not be politically correct, but it is essentially accurate. On a fixed retirement income, where do we get the additional money to pay this new inflated tax on just about everything needed to live? We don't. What we do is decide what we will do without from our personal budget. While we are doing this we'll try to imagine the next billion-dollar scandal in which the government throws our money away.