Hi, folks. I'm the Victoria organizer for the fight hst movement....Here are some hard facts on the HST for you, from information found in the memorandum of agreement between the feds and the province.
1. we are locked in at 12% for two years, the province cannot increase/decrease at all. (so mitigation or lowering the tax to make it more palatable is not going to happen)
2. we are locked into the agreement for five years. If we bow out, we have to pay back the 1.6 billion in 'incentive/transition assistance' to the Feds. (incidentally, as far as I can tell, we are the ONLY province with this proviso)
3.The province will be able to "temporarily deny for a period of up to five years a portion, up to 100%, of allowable business input tax credits....Following this period, full ITC's will be phased in, in equal annual proportions, over a period of up to three years. BC would advance the timeline for the phase in of full ITCs should fiscal circumstances allow" (my interpretation -- Hanson feels he needs some or all of the money, you don't get your ITC's back for 5-8 years)
4. The province is allowed to designate a limited number of hst point of sale rebates, not exceeding 5%, in aggregate, of the estimated GST base for BC. (my interpretation- there isn't a lot of wiggle room. For example, if the tourism/restaurant industries are successful in negotiating a 'lesser impact'....you'll pay for it somewhere else, as something else that WAS going to be exempt (ie motor/aviation/marine fuels) will have to be 'un exempted)
Those are the high points of the MOA, which you can see for yourself on this link
http://www.gov.bc.ca...nts/HST_MOA.pdfI have more information, based on the Gov'ts own tax figures, that forecasts expected costs on the previously exempt items for BC as a whole, if you folks are interested.