Apr 27, 2009
Grit MPPs forced to talk up harmonization of GST/PST
TORSTAR NEWS SERVICE
Spooked by a brewing public backlash over Ontario?s move to a new harmonized sales tax, the Liberals are scrambling.
The combined sales tax doesn?t come in to effect until next year, but already is proving to be such a bust with Ontarians that Premier Dalton McGuinty is giving ministers new marching orders to go out and aggressively sell it, the Star has learned.
McGuinty is forcing his cabinet to go on a communications blitz to sell the tax changes against the backdrop of dissent in the Liberal ranks.
Last month, the premier and Finance Minister Dwight Duncan secretly inked a deal with Prime Minister Stephen Harper and federal Finance Minister Jim Flaherty to blend the provincial sales tax and the GST without the knowledge of cabinet ministers or Liberal MPPs.
Fallout from the revamped tax was evident last week as MPPs returned to Queen?s Park.
A week off in their ridings, listening to constituents? concerns, left some Liberal members already worried about the 2011 election.
In debate on the budget in the House, Progressive Conservative MPP Peter Shurman struck a nerve when he heckled Liberal MPPs who were trying to defend the blended tax.
?You know you?re getting the same calls we are,? thundered Shurman, leaving some Grit MPPs uncomfortably staring at their shoes.
While Tory and NDP MPPs can deflect angry constituents by opposing the tax reform, Liberal MPPs have been placed in the awkward position of being forced to defend higher prices for consumers.
Publicly, ministers and backbenchers point out that a federal Conservative government is the Liberals? partner in the scheme, but in private some complain they could pay a political price for Ottawa?s initiative.
They note the $4.3 billion in federal funding McGuinty received in exchange for harmonizing the taxes could be long forgotten by the October 2011 election.