I have been saying it for months now. And now:
Bob Mackin has a piece in the Tyee on the manipulation of the voting process with the HST Referendum.
It seems a top aid to Campbell is in the mix and the Freedom of Information response is heavily redacted.
And while you are at it have a look over at BC Mary's place to see her comparisons of the News Of The World and our own local (lack of responsible) media. .
Seems as well that we "conspiracy theorists"aren't alone. A well known retired journalists has been giving us lessons on what questions the media should be asking of the government. When you hear it from someone as experienced and respected as Harvey Oberfeld it kind of puts water on the fire of some local lapdog journalists in the Mainstream Media
7/19/2011
Hit List Of Items Previously Exempt From PST
From Fight HST
The “Real” Fight HST Hit List
Here is a list of the items previously exempt from PST that will now have HST applied to them at 7% additional.- Accounting
- Admission Fees
- Advertising
- Airline tickets
- Animal feeds (hay is exempt)
- Appliance repair & maintenance
- Architects
- Art Galleries Admission
- Attractions / Events
- Ballet Lessons
- Basic Cable TV
- Bicycles
- Campgrounds
- Cigarettes / Cigars
- Catering
- Chinese medicine
- Clothing –adult sized children
- Clothing – used adult (less than $100)
- Coffee shops
- Commercial Leases
- Compost
- Computer servicing
- Concert Tickets
- Condo management fees
- Consulting services
- Conveyance fees
- Delivery Services
- Dietary supplements
- Dry cleaning
- Driving Range fees
- Electronics repair
- Energy equipment
- Esthetician Services
- Fast food – Beverages
- Fire extinguishers
- First aid kits
- Fishing charters
- Fitness Club memberships
- Fitness Trainers
- Food producing trees and plants
- Freight (in BC)
- Funeral services
- Golf fees
- Grass Cutting
- Hair cuts
- Hall rental
- Health equipment
- Helmets
- Hockey tickets
- Hockey rink rentals
- Home appraisals
- Home inspections
- Home maintenance
- Home renovations (Labour)
- Horse Boarding
- Horse Shows
- Horse riding lessons
- House Cleaning services
- Insulation
- Interior design services
- Investment Counseling fees
- Landscaping
- Life jackets
- Limousine rentals
- Magazines/ newspapers
- Marketing services
- Massage therapy
- Membership fees
- Moorage
- Museum admissions
- Movies / Theatre
- Moving Costs
- Music MP3 downloads
- Naturopathy
- New Homes (some rebates applicable)
- Nicotine replacements
- Non-prescription meds
- Painting
- Parking
- Photography
- Postage
- Private Bus fares
- Printing
- Rail travel (originating in BC)
- Real estate fees
- Reflexology
- Rentals for Weddings, Canopy, Tuxedo etc.
- Reroofing House
- Restaurant meals
- RV parks
- Safety equipment (Not all safety and Energy Equipment is affected)
- School supplies
- Shoe repairs
- Skiing
- Smoke detectors
- Snow removal
- Solar power
- Some groceries
- Spa services
- Sports Training / Lessons
- Storage lockers
- Tailoring
- Taxi fares
- Telephone (Basic Charge for landlines will be affected)
- Theatre admissions
- Veterinarian
- Video downloads
- Vitamins
- Wedding Planner
- Windows (energy star)
- Rentals / Strata fees (Though they are HST exempt, most people will notice increases brought on by an increase in maintenance costs and other costs associated with owning Rental and Strata properties)
- Used cars / trucks / boats / non-turbine aircraft (Private Sale will have an additional 5% tax, it is not called HST)
Something Fishy With The HST Ballot Returns
From the Globe and Mail
Elections BC’s collection centre for HST ballots in the city of Vancouver is centrally located – across the street from city hall, down the road from Vancouver General Hospital and a block away from a Canada Line subway station.
The referendum may have been hotly contested but you’d never know it at the collection centre. At noon on Monday, the office was empty........[snip]
Further to this, I have been getting reports of only one ballot being sent to a residence where multiple eligible voters live.
If you have not received your Ballot please call Elections BC at 1-800-661-8683 This is the voter registration office. Call to make sure you are registered.. If you are registered and there are no errors then request a ballot be sent to your address. If they say you are not registered, yet you voted in the last Provincial election (May 14,2009) then you must dispute their information. There may be discrepancies in the information they have for you which might cause the delay. Correct any faults and have them mail you a ballot today.
There are too many variables in this ballot that can cause it to fail. I allege that these variables were put in place to sabotage this vote. Certainly Clarks claim about having a level playing field in this campaign went out the window in a hurry. $5 Million+ for the No side and $250,000 for the people on the YES side.
VOTE YES TO EXTINGUISH (GET RID OF) THE HST
Elections BC’s collection centre for HST ballots in the city of Vancouver is centrally located – across the street from city hall, down the road from Vancouver General Hospital and a block away from a Canada Line subway station.
The referendum may have been hotly contested but you’d never know it at the collection centre. At noon on Monday, the office was empty........[snip]
Further to this, I have been getting reports of only one ballot being sent to a residence where multiple eligible voters live.
If you have not received your Ballot please call Elections BC at 1-800-661-8683 This is the voter registration office. Call to make sure you are registered.. If you are registered and there are no errors then request a ballot be sent to your address. If they say you are not registered, yet you voted in the last Provincial election (May 14,2009) then you must dispute their information. There may be discrepancies in the information they have for you which might cause the delay. Correct any faults and have them mail you a ballot today.
There are too many variables in this ballot that can cause it to fail. I allege that these variables were put in place to sabotage this vote. Certainly Clarks claim about having a level playing field in this campaign went out the window in a hurry. $5 Million+ for the No side and $250,000 for the people on the YES side.
VOTE YES TO EXTINGUISH (GET RID OF) THE HST
7/18/2011
Commentor Responds to Stockwell Days Comments on HST
From Kamloops weekly
Concerning Stockwell Day’s pro-HST editorial of July 14th, 2011. Mr. Day was kind enough to take time from off from his Federal government indexed pension and retirement to tell the British Columbia electorate that the HST will drop 2 percentage points if it is brought into law. He goes on to say how much it will save the citizens of BC, when the actual reduction of the HST rate is finally reached; 2 years into the future. Anything could happen in 2 years to negate that reduction including a Provincial election.
What Mr. Day fails to mention is that the HST is now 12% and that since the HST was passed into law each British Columbian (baby, toddler, child, teenager and adult) is paying a minimum of $443.37 more a year in taxes. Because of the HST British Columbian’s tax free day is increased to June 6th, so each British Columbian works over 5 months for the government... that's too much!
What Mr. Day also doesn't mention is the currently British Columbia needs Federal government approval to get the HST reduced to 10%. Chances of a reduction in the HST are slim to none; if you believe it will occur I have a house in the US you might like to buy. You have to remember as the electorate that this is the same BC government that gave as an election promise there would be no HST brought in, yet here it is and we are paying it. Fool me once shame on you, fool me twice shame on me.
Concerning Mr. Day’s main argument about job creation by the HST. Let`s start with the projected job gains by 2020. Jack Mintz in his twelve page, twelve thousand dollar report paid by the BC taxpayer forecasted that the HST would create 113,000 jobs by 2020. Well, we all know what happened to that well thought out projection; it disintegrated, like it was infected by the Ebola virus.
The new report released by Jim Dinning declared that Jack Mintz’s forecast was wildly incorrect; the Dinning report claims the HST will create a mere 24,000 jobs by 2020, roughly 2400 new jobs per year. That’s a heck of a correction from 113,000 jobs to 24,000… HST isn’t looking that good is it? No it’s not looking good at all. Two different reports full of BC Liberal government propaganda, both paid by the BC taxpayer, that’s you!
This is same BC government that brought the HST in by an “Order of Council”. That means the BC Finance Minister signed the HST into law without consent of the BC legislature. Although legal that equates to taxation without representation, our elected representatives should have debated the HST issue in the legislative assembly at which end they should’ve had a free vote on it. In a representative democracy that’s what we are paying our elected officials to do for us, represent our interests. The HST initiative had an over whelming number of signatures from British Columbia indicating they wanted the tax repealed, BC Liberals are ignoring their constituents wishes.
Back to the “job creation” part of Mr. Day’s argument; those 24,000 jobs in ten years could have been created with the PST in place at no cost to the taxpayer, but let’s give the HST the benefit of the doubt and say it does create those jobs.
How much does it cost the taxpayer for those jobs to be created? The number is a staggering $554,166.67 per job, that’s how much it costs you the taxpayer through HST.
This quote is out of the most recent BC government endorsed report “families now pay a total of $1.33 billion more in sales tax after HST rebates and tax breaks are taken into account” So the math for the cost to the taxpayer for job creation is simple 1.33 billion per year / 2400 jobs per year = $554,166.67 per job, per year for the next 10 years. That’s outrageous…talk about misuse of tax dollars, this is a prime example.
Why not just give each one of those new BC employees the $554,166.67; perhaps they could start new businesses, which would really help the BC economy.
According to StatsCan the nation’s official number crunchers, if you want policy to encourage job creation, cutting corporate taxes is the weakest option (20 cents growth from every dollar of tax cut). But according to the BC Liberal government report “Businesses will pay about $730 million less in taxes”. What happened to ‘revenue neutral” which the BC Liberal government was so proud to point out early in the HST campaign, clearly the HST is not revenue neutral, the entire tax burden is shifted to the BC taxpayer.
Just a side bar to the discussion where are those promised reductions in price of goods supposedly coming back to the consumer because of the HST….they never materialized. Here’s a real example, the British Columbia liquor stores have not passed on the savings of HST to the consumer, if the government of British Columbia doesn’t reduce their prices why would private enterprise… the answer is they won’t!
According to the most recent BC government endorsed report “B.C.’s Consumer Price Index shows an initial spike of 1.1 per cent in the rate of inflation from June to July, when the HST
was introduced. That was higher than the national inflation rate of 0.5 per cent for the
same period” All due to the HST, you can’t make this stuff up it comes from the government of British Columbia.
The Liberal government of British Columbia has spent millions of our tax dollars trying to convince the people of British Columbia that the HST is a good thing, it’s not. It will allow the government to reach right into your pocket and take whatever money they want, whenever they want.
After the repeal of the HST in BC by referendum, the follow up referendum in British Columbia must focus on the electorate having the final approval of any tax submitted by the provincial legislature. Another referendum could propose that British Columbia passes a law enacting that any time there's a BC provincial deficit of more than 3 percent of BC’s GDP, all sitting members of the BC legislature are ineligible for re-election. That would motivate all BC politicians to get a sudden streak of ethics and use the BC provincial tax dollars efficiently.
The citizens of British Columbia need a political process allowing registered voters to propose laws which then can be submitted to the electorate for approval by vote after thorough debate by the BC electorate. This process has worked exceptionally well in Switzerland for over 125 years.
In this time of computer technology the citizens of British Columbia must have an easy and effective process to apply checks and balances to laws passed by their provincial government.
Because the BC Liberal government has purposely confused the referendum question you the voter must vote “YES” to have the tax repealed.
Update: Just now I was watching the Early News and There flew the birdman spouting about all the money the government has raised on the backs of those who can least afford it. He actually had the balls to say that the defecit was only some 300+ million instead of the 1.5 billion he originally stated. But what he doesn't say here is that big business isn't contributing and furthermore the tax is not revenue neutral.
Vote YES in the referendum to repeal HST!
And when you' done that lets work on getting rid of these lying thieves
Concerning Stockwell Day’s pro-HST editorial of July 14th, 2011. Mr. Day was kind enough to take time from off from his Federal government indexed pension and retirement to tell the British Columbia electorate that the HST will drop 2 percentage points if it is brought into law. He goes on to say how much it will save the citizens of BC, when the actual reduction of the HST rate is finally reached; 2 years into the future. Anything could happen in 2 years to negate that reduction including a Provincial election.
What Mr. Day fails to mention is that the HST is now 12% and that since the HST was passed into law each British Columbian (baby, toddler, child, teenager and adult) is paying a minimum of $443.37 more a year in taxes. Because of the HST British Columbian’s tax free day is increased to June 6th, so each British Columbian works over 5 months for the government... that's too much!
What Mr. Day also doesn't mention is the currently British Columbia needs Federal government approval to get the HST reduced to 10%. Chances of a reduction in the HST are slim to none; if you believe it will occur I have a house in the US you might like to buy. You have to remember as the electorate that this is the same BC government that gave as an election promise there would be no HST brought in, yet here it is and we are paying it. Fool me once shame on you, fool me twice shame on me.
Concerning Mr. Day’s main argument about job creation by the HST. Let`s start with the projected job gains by 2020. Jack Mintz in his twelve page, twelve thousand dollar report paid by the BC taxpayer forecasted that the HST would create 113,000 jobs by 2020. Well, we all know what happened to that well thought out projection; it disintegrated, like it was infected by the Ebola virus.
The new report released by Jim Dinning declared that Jack Mintz’s forecast was wildly incorrect; the Dinning report claims the HST will create a mere 24,000 jobs by 2020, roughly 2400 new jobs per year. That’s a heck of a correction from 113,000 jobs to 24,000… HST isn’t looking that good is it? No it’s not looking good at all. Two different reports full of BC Liberal government propaganda, both paid by the BC taxpayer, that’s you!
This is same BC government that brought the HST in by an “Order of Council”. That means the BC Finance Minister signed the HST into law without consent of the BC legislature. Although legal that equates to taxation without representation, our elected representatives should have debated the HST issue in the legislative assembly at which end they should’ve had a free vote on it. In a representative democracy that’s what we are paying our elected officials to do for us, represent our interests. The HST initiative had an over whelming number of signatures from British Columbia indicating they wanted the tax repealed, BC Liberals are ignoring their constituents wishes.
Back to the “job creation” part of Mr. Day’s argument; those 24,000 jobs in ten years could have been created with the PST in place at no cost to the taxpayer, but let’s give the HST the benefit of the doubt and say it does create those jobs.
How much does it cost the taxpayer for those jobs to be created? The number is a staggering $554,166.67 per job, that’s how much it costs you the taxpayer through HST.
This quote is out of the most recent BC government endorsed report “families now pay a total of $1.33 billion more in sales tax after HST rebates and tax breaks are taken into account” So the math for the cost to the taxpayer for job creation is simple 1.33 billion per year / 2400 jobs per year = $554,166.67 per job, per year for the next 10 years. That’s outrageous…talk about misuse of tax dollars, this is a prime example.
Why not just give each one of those new BC employees the $554,166.67; perhaps they could start new businesses, which would really help the BC economy.
According to StatsCan the nation’s official number crunchers, if you want policy to encourage job creation, cutting corporate taxes is the weakest option (20 cents growth from every dollar of tax cut). But according to the BC Liberal government report “Businesses will pay about $730 million less in taxes”. What happened to ‘revenue neutral” which the BC Liberal government was so proud to point out early in the HST campaign, clearly the HST is not revenue neutral, the entire tax burden is shifted to the BC taxpayer.
Just a side bar to the discussion where are those promised reductions in price of goods supposedly coming back to the consumer because of the HST….they never materialized. Here’s a real example, the British Columbia liquor stores have not passed on the savings of HST to the consumer, if the government of British Columbia doesn’t reduce their prices why would private enterprise… the answer is they won’t!
According to the most recent BC government endorsed report “B.C.’s Consumer Price Index shows an initial spike of 1.1 per cent in the rate of inflation from June to July, when the HST
was introduced. That was higher than the national inflation rate of 0.5 per cent for the
same period” All due to the HST, you can’t make this stuff up it comes from the government of British Columbia.
The Liberal government of British Columbia has spent millions of our tax dollars trying to convince the people of British Columbia that the HST is a good thing, it’s not. It will allow the government to reach right into your pocket and take whatever money they want, whenever they want.
After the repeal of the HST in BC by referendum, the follow up referendum in British Columbia must focus on the electorate having the final approval of any tax submitted by the provincial legislature. Another referendum could propose that British Columbia passes a law enacting that any time there's a BC provincial deficit of more than 3 percent of BC’s GDP, all sitting members of the BC legislature are ineligible for re-election. That would motivate all BC politicians to get a sudden streak of ethics and use the BC provincial tax dollars efficiently.
The citizens of British Columbia need a political process allowing registered voters to propose laws which then can be submitted to the electorate for approval by vote after thorough debate by the BC electorate. This process has worked exceptionally well in Switzerland for over 125 years.
In this time of computer technology the citizens of British Columbia must have an easy and effective process to apply checks and balances to laws passed by their provincial government.
Because the BC Liberal government has purposely confused the referendum question you the voter must vote “YES” to have the tax repealed.
Update: Just now I was watching the Early News and There flew the birdman spouting about all the money the government has raised on the backs of those who can least afford it. He actually had the balls to say that the defecit was only some 300+ million instead of the 1.5 billion he originally stated. But what he doesn't say here is that big business isn't contributing and furthermore the tax is not revenue neutral.
Vote YES in the referendum to repeal HST!
And when you' done that lets work on getting rid of these lying thieves
7/15/2011
Falcon And CO. now threatening the masses
And The Terrace Daily has the story in a letter from The NDP
Honest to Christ(y) Clark, just when I think the Liberals can't stoop any low they come out and lower the bar. The threat is idle folks. They can't keep restaurant meals taxed unless they pass an amendment to the tax act. And if they did that it would mean political suicide.
Give us a break. I think they honestly believe their lies and threats folks. Either that or they are so desperate to hide from us the fact that they have ruined this province for at least a decade to come, they will attempt anything to get you to change your vote.
Honest to Christ(y) Clark, just when I think the Liberals can't stoop any low they come out and lower the bar. The threat is idle folks. They can't keep restaurant meals taxed unless they pass an amendment to the tax act. And if they did that it would mean political suicide.
Give us a break. I think they honestly believe their lies and threats folks. Either that or they are so desperate to hide from us the fact that they have ruined this province for at least a decade to come, they will attempt anything to get you to change your vote.
7/11/2011
Errors in the Ballot From Elections BC
This email is making the rounds and I feel that all bases need to be covered.
*This advice re: the HST referendum*
If anyone gets their ballot envelope and there is no ballot inside.
please contact thand@island.net immediately
This is very important so please pass this along to everyone you know
asking them to do the same.
Also, please read the directions on the envelope and put your
birthdate in the order that is requested – if wrong it could be
rejected.
*More on the HST referendum:
http://rafeonline.com/2011/07/
Another thing I have noticed is that some households are getting only one ballot where multiple people should be getting them. When Elections BC is called and challenged on this they say that people are not registered. In one case I know, all people in the house voted in the last election.
All I can say is CHALLENGE EBC to prove you are not registered. Do it on the phone and don't hang up until you are satisfied that an error (if made) is corrected and you are having the ballot mailed right away. The Number to call is 1-800-661-8683 or visit their website at www.elections.bc.ca
If you are having trouble get hold of me. I'll see what can be done. If you don't want your comment posted please mark it "NOT FOR PUBLICATION" But make sure you give all the facts.
This Referendum is your life. You need to vote.
VOTE YES TO CANCEL THE HST. And look at the facts. Such as the HST has not been lowered to 10% and that is not going to happen any time soon. If ever. Remember, if we don't vote this down now we will lose the Provinces ability to set our own taxes. And you as a taxpayer will be shouldered with paying for Businesses taxes.
There are many local (BC) bloggers who have some great input on the HST. Some of whom are listed in my bloglist here.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)