As a business owner, Lynda White, of All Treat Farms Ltd., has seen a very negative impact as a result of the HST implemented last year.
White made the comments last week at an Arthur & District Chamber of Commerce meeting whether the guest was Tim Hudak, leader of the Ontario PC Party.
White explained that she and her husband operate a horticultural-based business with 103 employees manufacturing natural products.
“Like every business in Ontario, we are getting hit with all kinds of expenses.”
She said that this year, after the implementation of the HST people stopped spending on certain items – such as yard and home care products.
White noted that beforehand, the products produced at All Treat did not incur PST because it was a natural product.
“How can we get people spending again?”
White said there needs to be a way to encourage people to spend again to get the economy rolling.
She realized that the HST cannot be removed entirely, but there might be certain areas where it could be reduced or removed.
Local resident Mary Schmidt suggested removing the tax from essentials such as heat and hydro.
In her own travel-related business, she too is seeing the HST impact.
She said that travel within Canada has the HST applied, while travel outside of Canada does not.
“We’re basically promoting people to leave the country.”
Provincial gas tax
White added said that even though residents pay the same gas taxes, rural Ontario does not get any benefit from the provincial tax which goes to cities because there are no transit systems in rural areas.
She said there are plenty of bridges and roads in Wellington County that need work.
White asked if there was any way the province could provide similar types of subsidies for rural Ontario.
Hudak’s short answer was ‘yes’.
He said that whether people lived in Arthur or Damascus, they pay the same gas tax as people in Mississauga or Toronto.
“That I feel is demonstrably unfair.
He said he believed a more fair approach would be similar to that used by the federal government.
That level of government provides a measure of gas tax to municipalities, but lets the local politicians decide how that money is spent.
