Clark ends speculation about tax changes
B.C.’s business community had previously asked the Liberal leader to reform the provincial sales tax
B.C. Liberal party Leader Christy Clark shut the door on the business community’s request for a value added tax Monday, ending several days of speculation her party would consider major tax reforms should it win re-election.
Clark told the editorial boards of the Vancouver Sun and The Province that she’d concluded a hard “no” to the value added tax and repeated her earlier refusals to reconsider the unpopular harmonized sales tax, which was defeated in a 2011 referendum.
“If I’m re-elected for my second term, in the next four years, it doesn’t include a VAT or an HST,” she said.
B.C.’s business community had previously asked Clark to reform the current provincial sales tax into a value-added model, which would exempt the various stages of machinery and processing on items rather than the current system of applying the PST to each stage.
Clark had appeared to hedge on the issue in the past few days, saying she’d discuss VAT with the business community in order to improve B.C.’s tax competitiveness. Clark said she meant to say she’s willing to talk about other reforms.
“In the past they’ve said we should go back to the HST. Nope. Now they are saying they want to go to a VAT, and I’m saying nope. That doesn’t mean we rule out more tax competitiveness,” she said.
“Here we are facing a rising tide of protectionism from Donald Trump south of the border, so we’ve got an aggressive protectionist administration — now is the last time that we should be raising taxes. The massive tax increases from the B.C. NDP, combined with what could be a more tax competitive and certainly will be a more protectionist government south of the border, is a recipe for disaster for jobs.”
Clark also flatly rejected any potential increase to the PST if re-elected, and said she would not change any of the exemptions on consumer goods and services, such as haircuts and restaurant meals.
The B.C. NDP expressed disbelief. “It’s the same old behaviour from Christy Clark, which is tell one thing, try to keep it hidden, if you get caught out change your mind,” said NDP candidate Carole James.
She said an idea to charge a $1 toll on every Metro Vancouver bridge would be unaffordable for drivers. The Liberals have proposed a $500 annual cap on the Port Mann and Golden Ears bridges, while the NDP have said they’d eliminate the tolls entirely.
Clark also defended the scandals accumulated during her record, including a lengthy court fight with the B.C. Teachers’ Federation, the health firings case, political donations and other matters.
“I think having no controversies and having done nothing that upsets anybody is not a good recipe for leadership,” she said.
She again rejected the premise that she should apologize to parents for an almost 10-year court battle with teachers, because student outcomes are still high.
When asked about her government appearing to care more about business and jobs than people, and refusing to raise the welfare rate for a decade, she said that’s why her focus has been on creating more jobs.