http://refedbc.com/siteA/page61/page61.html

British Columbians must be clear what the real issue is. We must not waste our energy attacking the wrong target.

So if this HST fight is not about what is the best tax – VAT or Retail Sales tax or GST,

And if it is not about which tax collection method is most efficient,

And if it is not about another increase in the huge tax load we are forced to pay.

Then what is the real problem ?

The problem is that we are losing a war with Ottawa that we do not even realize we are in. Ottawa has never had authority over provincial taxation, but over the years our BC governments have given away control over our tax policy. Ottawa has bribed our BC politicians to let the central government set tax policy in BC.

This is the battle that we have to fight and win today. This HST proposal is another small give-away of BC’s authority to set our own tax policies. Look at the previous give-aways by BC.

When Ottawa was first created by the provinces this new central government was forbidden to impose direct taxes like income tax and GST in the provinces, and for the first 50 years that’s how it was. The first mistake BC made was that for the last 90 years the BC government has allowed Ottawa to charge an unlawful federal income tax in BC. Then the next mistake was that a few years ago a BC government agreed that Ottawa should physically collect all this province’s taxes and only give us back some of our own money. Once our taxes go direct to Ottawa we have no say. Whoever holds the money runs the show.

To get to the root of all BC’s tax problems a proper BC constitution and an element of direct democracy would prevent such scams as this HST.

BC is so helpless now that when Campbell gave all British Columbians a carbon tax rebate the province had to ask Ottawa to write the cheques. That’s the kind of control we have to reverse. Handing more control to Ottawa is the real reason we have to stop this HST proposal.

Surely every taxpayer in BC must be able to see that once Ottawa is allowed to harmonize our taxes then Ottawa will be able to raise the rate of tax. The BC Refederation Party urges all British Columbians to look past the warm and fuzzy assurances that the HST is a good move for BC, and we urge you to sign the petition to kill this HST move by the BC liberal government.