Beyond The Commons

Aaron Wherry covers all the goings-on in and around Parliament Hill. Follow Aaron on Twitter: @aaronwherry

Categories: Beyond The Commons, Capital Read

The demise of the HST (III)

by Aaron Wherry on Monday, August 29, 2011 5:10pm - 42 Comments

With the change now rejected by voters, the Harper government expects British Columbia to return the $1.6-billion in transition funding. The NDP thinks that would be unfair.

“Small businesses of all types suffered significant losses due to the HST,” said NDP BC Caucus Chair Don Davies. “It would be both spiteful and damaging for Harper to now force BC to pay back $1.6 billion, after it was already invested in things like health care and education.”

Tags: Don Davies, hst, Jim Flaherty, NDP, tax harmonization

More by Aaron Wherry

Anonymous

Surprise….votes have consequences.
Anonymous

Surprise….votes have consequences.
Anonymous

Ummm…

Wasn’t the deal, institute the HST, get compensation? Doesn’t it logically follow that if you don’t stick to the deal you return the compensation?

Has B.C. become the bratty child of confederation? They promise to take out the garbage to get their allowance, but then after taking the bag out of the bucket, they toss it onto the floor and refuse to take it out, but still want their allowance.

Sorry kid, no allowance for you.

What’s that?

You promised to buy your friends some toys with the money?

Looks like you’ve got some explaining to do.

Anonymous

Wasn’t the deal, institute the HST, get compensation?

More than that, the agreement specifically stated that the funds were contingent not only on the province implementing the HST, but also on KEEPING IT until at least July of 2015. Also, the provincial government already acknowledged before the referendum that if the HST were scraped they’d be obliged to pay back the money.

All that said, it’s the FEDERAL NDP who seem to be suggesting they shouldn’t have to pay it back. Until the actual government of B.C. starts arguing that they should get to keep that money (if they have the gall to do so) I think we can hold off on calling them the new brats of confederation. Let’s hope the can avoid the temptation of following the federal NDP’s lead!
Anonymous

Wasn’t the deal, institute the HST, get compensation?

More than that, the agreement specifically stated that the funds were contingent not only on the province implementing the HST, but also on KEEPING IT until at least July of 2015. Also, the provincial government already acknowledged before the referendum that if the HST were scraped they’d be obliged to pay back the money.

All that said, it’s the FEDERAL NDP who seem to be suggesting they shouldn’t have to pay it back. Until the actual government of B.C. starts arguing that they should get to keep that money (if they have the gall to do so) I think we can hold off on calling them the new brats of confederation. Let’s hope the can avoid the temptation of following the federal NDP’s lead!

AVR

Fair enough, but can we keep calling the federal NDP profoundly incompetent on all matters economic and financial?

Anonymous

This is freaking unbelievable. I’m pretty sure a bunch of the Yes voters think we just shouldn’t have to repay the money because they don’t like Stephen Harper and Vander Zalm told them they shouldn’t have to repay anything.

As a rational person (who voted to keep the HST, btw), I think BC should repay the feds. I don’t BC to be like that province back east that complains about everything that isn’t 100% favourable to them.
http://tigeronpolitics.wordpress.com tigerinexile

*facepalm*
Anonymous

It’s almost as if the BC NDP is run by pandering clowns who are unfit to govern. It’s bad enough that they don’t understand economics; it’s even worse that they don’t want to return the HST compensation to the feds. It speaks to a general lack of seriousness and credibility.

Anonymous

This is the Fed NDP being quoted.

Anonymous

Ah, you’re right. It’s the federal NDP that is run by pandering clowns who are unfit to govern, though I’m sure their BC cousins aren’t much better.

Let’s hope the next federal NDP leader has enough brainpower to avoid this type of stupidity.

Anonymous

Pandering clowns – the NDP doesn’t have a monoply on them, do they?
Anonymous

Pandering clowns – the NDP doesn’t have a monoply on them, do they?

Anonymous

Ah, you’re right. It’s the federal NDP that is run by pandering clowns who are unfit to govern, though I’m sure their BC cousins aren’t much better.

Let’s hope the next federal NDP leader has enough brainpower to avoid this type of stupidity.

Anonymous

This is the Fed NDP being quoted.

Anonymous

Can anyone hear the sound of me pulling my hair out????

Be afraid BCers, be very, very afraid if these guys form the next government. Mind you, that kind of thinking should keep them very popular in Quebec, lol!!!
Anonymous

Can anyone hear the sound of me pulling my hair out????

Be afraid BCers, be very, very afraid if these guys form the next government. Mind you, that kind of thinking should keep them very popular in Quebec, lol!!!
Anonymous

Wow, I thought the NDP were doing things ‘Jack’s Way’ – Always fighting for the good of the country, doing the right thing. Or was that last week?
Anonymous

Wow, I thought the NDP were doing things ‘Jack’s Way’ – Always fighting for the good of the country, doing the right thing. Or was that last week?
Anonymous

There’s NDP philosophy in a nutshell. Take other peoples’ money, ignore their wishes and spend it on whatever you like, and blame them when you fail to get the results you promised.

Anonymous

It’s even more outrageous when you consider it’s the BC NDP who was, along with Zalm, leading the campaign to get the HST nuked. Which they knew would result in the money having to be paid back to the feds. So you do something that you KNOW will result in a debt being owed, you do it anyway, then claim that it’s unfair to repay that debt. What a bunch of clowns.
Anonymous

It’s even more outrageous when you consider it’s the BC NDP who was, along with Zalm, leading the campaign to get the HST nuked. Which they knew would result in the money having to be paid back to the feds. So you do something that you KNOW will result in a debt being owed, you do it anyway, then claim that it’s unfair to repay that debt. What a bunch of clowns.

Anonymous

There’s NDP philosophy in a nutshell. Take other peoples’ money, ignore their wishes and spend it on whatever you like, and blame them when you fail to get the results you promised.
Anonymous

This is a wondrous day in Canadian national unity! For the first time in my lifetime I’m wondering if the ROC is going to need to send the army in to a province to get our money back, and it’s NOT Quebec!

LOL (J/K of course!)

More seriously, I’m sorry if people in B.C. think it would be unfair to give the feds back the money they were given for doing X, now that they’ve decided not to do X anymore, but frankly, in the ROC, that dog ain’t gonna hunt.

Anonymous

I’m not sure a few politicians represent what the people of B.C. think. The province doesn’t have a history of being irresponsible, I’m not sure why it would start now.

Anonymous

Precisely.
Anonymous

Precisely.

Anonymous

Exactly. I’m a BC resident, please don’t tag the NDP’s idiocy and irresponsibility on me. I voted to keep the HST, because I’m rational and sentient, unlike Zalm and the NDP. The clown quoted in Wherry’s post does not represent the people of BC, thank Christ.
Anonymous

Exactly. I’m a BC resident, please don’t tag the NDP’s idiocy and irresponsibility on me. I voted to keep the HST, because I’m rational and sentient, unlike Zalm and the NDP. The clown quoted in Wherry’s post does not represent the people of BC, thank Christ.

Anonymous

Excellent point Jan.

Anonymous

I’m not sure a few politicians represent what the people of B.C. think. The province doesn’t have a history of being irresponsible, I’m not sure why it would start now.

Anonymous

Libby Davies has a great quote in that one article:

“The reality is, there was a democratic process,” she replied. “If
Stephen Harper can’t listen to what the people of British Columbia are
saying, I think he’ll get a huge reaction.”

Has Libby Davies forgotten that there are nine other provinces and three territories??? To my way of thinking, the only people who’ll be more upset than the 4,530,960 people of British Columbia if they have to repay the money to the feds (AS PER THE AGREEMENT THEIR GOVERNMENT MADE I might add) are the 29,577,792 other Canadians if B.C. keeps it. If I were Harper, I’d be more worried about the huge reaction he’ll get if he doesn’t get that money back. The people of B.C. have every right to force their elected officials to go back on the agreement they signed with the feds that led them to getting that $1.6 billion. However, they have NO right to renege on the agreement AND keep the money. You can’t have your HST bribe and your PST too.

AM

This is what people forget; the NDP is just as ideological as the worst neo-cons, except in the other direction.

Anonymous

Well, as ideological as the “worst” neo-cons in the Conservative Party anyway. The worst “neo-cons” in the country, like the worst “socialists” in the country aren’t actually a part of the Tories or the Dippers, imho, they either have no party affiliation or are affiliated with more radical parties.

Anonymous

To be fair, that 1.6 billion was a bribe. Generally, you don’t get bribes back when the bribee doesn’t deliver on their promise. Perhaps a severed horse head should be put in Gordo’s bed while he’s sleeping?

But ya, the NDP is out to lunch on this one. They’d have a point if BC kept the HST until 2015.

Anonymous

Perhaps a severed horse head should be put in Gordo’s bed while he’s sleeping?

I believe that when bribees fail to do the thing they were bribed to do, but keep the bribe nonetheless, the standard response is to take out their kneecaps.
Anonymous

It wan’t a bribe. It was compensation. The feds benefit if the provinves adopt the HST – the feds would prefer all provinces are harmonized. Therefore it is compensation.

Anonymous

It wasn’t a bribe. It was compensation. The feds benefit if the provinces adopt the HST – the feds would prefer all provinces are harmonized. Therefore it is compensation.

So, it wasn’t a bribe, just an exchange of money from party X to party Y in order to convince party Y to do something that benefits party X? (LOL)

Not that I don’t understand your objection to the term “bribe”, which is clearly hyperbolic, I just lol’d at the thought that “it wasn’t a bribe, it was just ‘compensation’ for the ‘favour’ they did us” is exactly how a prohibition-era gangster would have described a bribe in court, lol.

That said, even if it was a bribe that’s immaterial. I still want the feds to get the bribe back!

Anonymous

It was compensation for making the switch, which would have been expensive. Compensation is payment for incurred costs. Bribes are not.

Anonymous

Potato, potato.

Anonymous

Yup. Send Tony Clement out there to demand the money back.
Because it’s the right thing to do.
http://twitter.com/Ott_Guy Ottawa Guy

Perhaps this appeal for generosity would be more credible if the NDP had not joined forces with the BC anti-tax teabag party to set the stage for a proposition 13-type of public sector meltdown that I can just feel a-coming.

As a non-BC Canadian, I will therefore be enraged if BC is allowed to keep a nickel of the federal money they received to implement the HST.

As poster Emily noted above, actions have consequences, even for the NDP.