Wednesday, August 05, 2009

On inducements

The move by Gordon Campbell's B.C. government to harmonize its sales tax with the GST - just weeks after saying it had no intention of doing so during an election campaign - has rightly given rise to a massive public outcry.

But it's worth taking a look at the other side of the picture as well. Much of Campbell's excuse seems to be tied to the knowledge that Deficit Jim Flaherty would be happy to funnel federal dollars B.C.'s way for the conversion - in effect using promised federal funding to patch over the holes Campbell blew in the provincial budget. But at a time when Canada's budget is itself headed for years of red ink, isn't it worth revisiting whether the Cons should be spending federal money to push provincial tax burdens from businesses onto consumers?

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