Friends and colleagues, currently there are a number of people advocating for “no HST”; these people are effectively advocates of the current PST+GST tax regime, a system of taxation that in many respects is both inequitable and inefficient. The exemptions to PST create the inequities: a person buying a coat or blanket to keep warm pays PST on their purchase, while a person enjoying a caviar dinner in a restaurant does not. After harmonization, equal tax rates will apply to both purchases, thus making it a more equitable tax system. The amalgamation of the PST+GST system into the HST will also eliminate the waste associated with PST compliance and tax-cascading, and remove barriers to growth in exports and productivity. The HST is better for British Columbia: it is more equitable and more efficient, it will promote exporting and, perhaps most importantly, it will promote investment in capital and productivity—issues that are becoming increasingly important as we collectively manage an economic and demographic future that will be much different from our past.
 
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