Thursday, April 08, 2010

New Brunswick rejects Harmonized Sales Tax increase


New Brunswick Liberal government, Convervative opposition rule out increasing Harmonized Sales Tax rate

The Canadian Press is reporting today that both the Liberal government and Conservative opposition say they will not increase that province's HST a day after the Nova Scotia NDP government hiked its HST from 13% to 15%.

New Brunswick’s finance minister Greg Byrne: "The government of Nova Scotia has made a decision on how they will deal with their fiscal situation and best stimulate their economy. New Brunswick has adopted a different approach,"

"As a matter of fact, we are doing all we can to make New Brunswick the most competitive tax jurisdiction that we can," he said. "We believe that is the way to stimulate investment and to grow the economy."

NB Conservative Leader David Alward also says if elected his party will not raise the tax.

"The last thing that I think needs to take place is that we raise taxes," he said. "Keeping taxes lower for New Brunswickers and for businesses creates opportunity and creates prosperity."

NDP leader Roger Duguay has not yet commented on the HST issue.

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2 comments:

DPL said...

The new NDP government must have got stuck with a huge shorfall of cash.How bad were the books when tehy took over? Nice to see another province has said no thanks.

Anonymous said...

Has the entire country gone mad? On W-5 last week, there was a program, about the CRA, cheating Canadian tax payers out of billions of dollars. The especially target the aged and the low income, they are too afraid and too poor to fight back. The couple on the program, taped the conversations, one agent said, yup they are out to get you. There is a class action suit, I would think, anyone could join in, with their own complaints. There is a petition coming out to, abolish the CRA. Provinces are going on taxing frenzies. BC's budget is ridiculous and compounded by the HST, is impossible, for jobless citizens to pay. Many communities are going underground and setting up bartering systems, to try and cope. Price gouging in BC, has always gone unchecked. Food costs, have gone sky high, so communities have to feed their homeless people, which is doubling in numbers already. There has been an incredible rise, in homeless seniors, they will need to be fed too. Many of them, only have $1,000 per month to live on. They already, don't have enough to eat.