taxation

When the PST rears its ugly head on April 1, 2013, British Columbia’s tax competitiveness will be dealt a major blow as the cost of the investing in the province increases dramatically. Unfortunately, the well-being of BC families will be negatively affected in many ways – none more important than the adverse impact the PST will have on investment in machinery, equipment, and technology – the backbone of a healthy economy.

If you’ve ever tried to calculate all the taxes you pay in a year to all levels of government, you’ve probably given up somewhere along the way. While most of us can easily decipher how much income tax we pay – it’s right there on our tax returns – it’s a lot more difficult to gauge how much we pay in not-so-obvious taxes.

The 1990s was an economically dismal decade for British Columbia. The province effectively missed the prosperity party enjoyed by the rest of Canada due largely to poor economic policies. As a result, the province actually became a “have-not” province and a recipient of federal equalization payments.

We witnessed young, educated and skilled British Columbians leave the province for opportunities elsewhere and BC had the lowest per person GDP growth among the provinces between 1990 and 2000.