Province, Feds Pass HST Bills
Posted December 9, 2009 10:30 am.
This article is more than 5 years old.
The Harmonized Sales Tax bill has passed its final hurdle at Queen’s Park.
After weeks of loud protests, stunts and even walkouts, the province voted in favour of the controversial HST at its third and final reading.
Ontario consumers can expect to pay the 13 per cent tax – a combination of the eight per cent PST and five per cent GST – starting July 1, 2010.
Finance Minister Dwight Duncan says the tax will lower costs for businesses and could create as many as 600,000 new jobs in the province.
“Sometimes you have to take difficult choices and I think voters respect that,” he added.
But opposition parties say there was little room for public input and the move will cost the Liberals votes.
The Liberals used their majority “to ram through the HST bill as quickly as possible and with little debate as possible,” said NDP Leader Andrea Horwath.
“By the time the election comes I think the people will not forget this one. this is not an easy one to forget.”
The new tax will apply to items that are currently exempt from PST, such as gasoline, home heating and cable bills.
And it includes cuts to corporate and income taxes and one-time rebates of up to $1,000 to offset the impact of the HST for some families.
Notably absent from the vote were Premier Dalton McGuinty, on a trade mission in India, and Tory MPP Christine Elliott, the wife of federal finance minister Jim Flaherty, who helped broker the HST deal.
Later on Wednesday, MPs in the House of Commons also voted 253-37 in favour of the HST for Ontario and B.C.
The Conservatives, Liberals and Bloc Quebecois supported the measure, while the NDP opposed it.
The federal bill transfers funds to the two provinces for implementing the change.
With files from the Canadian Press
