Letter to The Honourable Colin Hansen Re: HST

November 24, 2009

The Honourable Colin Hansen
Minister of Finance
Room 153, Parliament Buildings
PO Box 9048 Stn. Prov. Govt.
Victoria, BC V8W 9E2

Dear Minister Hansen,

Re: HST

In July of this year, your government announced that it was going to introduce a Harmonized Sales Tax in British Columbia on July 1, 2010. Since that announcement, The Board of Trade consulted with our members, our Board of Directors and other business organizations in order to fully understand the issues and ideas relative to the implementation of the HST. The Board’s Provincial Government Budget and Finance Task Force also examined various issues respecting the replacement of the PST. As a result of these consultations and discussions, the Board of Directors of The Board of Trade unanimously passed, the following resolution:

The Vancouver Board of Trade supports the introduction of a Harmonized Sales Tax (HST) to replace the current PST and GST recognizing the overall positive economic impact on investment, productivity and future job growth in the province providing that the government work with adversely affected industries to mitigate the impact of the HST. We recognize that certain industry sectors will be more adversely affected than others. Some of the affected sectors include:

• New Residential Construction
• Rental Accommodation
• Restaurants
• Tourism and Hospitality
• Financial Services
• Residential Care
• Health Services

It is important that the provincial government work with representatives of these and other sectors to mitigate the impact of the HST in those industries as much as possible. In addition, the government should quickly create and issue the transition rules around the July 1, 2010 HST implementation so that industries and their customers know how they will be impacted regarding liability for HST payments at that date.

Due to the broad spectrum of membership of The Vancouver Board of Trade and the divergent impact of the HST on our members, we wanted to arrive at a resolution that would best address the variety of opinions held by our members on this important subject.

I would welcome the opportunity to discuss with you how The Board of Trade can work with you and your Ministry to both address some of the issues raised relative to the HST and to ensure a smooth and effective implementation. I look forward to hearing from you.

Yours truly,

Sue Paish
Chair

/jf

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