Editor:
Re: “Ballet Kelowna”
Last Thursday (Nov. 5) we dragged ourselves away from TV to see the Ballet Kelowna perform in the Osoyoos Mini Theatre.
It was a wonderful and exciting performance!
They danced and danced.
It was an evening to remember.
Thank you!
Please come back and entertain us again.
Traude Aspe,
Osoyoos

OSOYOOS TIMES-November 18, 2009

HST WILL LIKELY HAMPER B.C.’S ECONOMIC RECOVERY

Editor:
Consumer spending is the backbone of British Columbia’s economy.
Therefore, taking money out of consumers’ pockets with the new HST will mean less money left to spend on everything from restaurant meals to new homes, and everything in between.
There is no guarantee that the HST will create jobs and lower prices.
However, there is a certainty that consumers will soon be paying an additional seven per cent on many previously tax-exempt goods and services.
Jobs will only be created in this province when the global recession is over.
The coming HST will only hamper any recovery.
It has been our experience as Canadians that lower prices are never passed back (voluntarily) to consumers.
This is another “trickle-down economics” policy that will fail to live up to its promise.
How much more will you be paying in taxes on what you consume?
It can be considerable and, as a sales tax, it is all tied to how much you spend.
Finance Minister Colin Hansen said in Victoria’s Times Colonist in August that introducing the HST would be “the single biggest thing we can do to stimulate the economy.”
The C.D. Howe Institute, Canada’s leading non-partisan public policy think tank, however, has called the proposed B.C. HST the largest tax grab in B.C. history.
You cannot buy your way out of a global recession with a destructive new tax.
When the recession ends, our economy will pick up without the HST.
This tax is a windfall for “Business” and their shareholders, and will not benefit the average tax-paying citizen in this province.
The Maritimes have had the HST for 12 years.
Did this save them from the global recession?
No, it did not.
Jobs were lost in the province of New Brunswick simply because there was a lack of demand for their resources and the goods they produced.
People who are heavily taxed have less money to spend to support their businesses.
However, regardless of whether you feel the HST will benefit or harm consumers in B.C., we should all remember that the B.C. Liberals promised no HST pre-election, only to flip-flop three months later.
No one can argue with that.
Paul McCavour,
Osoyoos

OSOYOOS TIMES-November 18, 2009