This weekend is the last for the HST in BC
Posted March 29, 2013 9:24 am.
This article is more than 5 years old.
VANCOUVER (NEWS1130) – In just three days, the prices of many services in BC will go down.
The controversial HST will be eliminated on Monday.
The tax came into effect back in 2010 and the leader of Fight HST, the campaign behind the push to get rid of it, is surprised it only took three years to see it disappear.
“Had I known in 2009 that the last day that I would be seeing HST would be sometime in 2013, I might’ve come at it a little differently; I wouldn’t have been so enthusiastic,” says Bill Vander Zalm.
He says the HST and the referendum has had a big impact on BC’s political landscape.
“It had an impact on not just a political party, [but rather] every political party. People are viewing politics a little differently today and in the future, we’re going to see a whole lot more direct democracy.”
Vander Zalm will be in Victoria on Sunday for an HST send-off party on the lawns of the BC Legislature.
Dining out at a restaurant and getting a haircut are among services that will be cheaper when we return to the GST/PST system. But Minister of State for Small Business Naomi Yamamoto says many businesses still aren’t ready.
“We expect 100,000 have to register. Of that 100,000, I think probably about 75,000 have registered,” she tells us.”
Yamamoto adds there’s still a lot of confusion over PST exemptions. “There’s PST on, I think, quilts but not comforters… something like that. Those are the little things that businesses may ask about.”
Businesses that have not registered by Monday will not be eligible to collect the PST.
