HST will add to fuel costs: Hudak
FANNIE SUNSHINE
June 16, 2010
Alongside Thornhill MPP Peter Shurman, Hudak said the Tories will be travelling across Ontario to raise awareness of the Liberal-introduced HST, which is set to come into effect July 1.
HST will add to fuel costs: Hudak
FANNIE SUNSHINE
June 16, 2010
The new harmonized sales tax (HST) will cost the average family more than $200 a year in gas alone, forcing people to work even harder to make ends meet, Ontario Progressive Conservative Leader Tim Hudak said outside a North York gas station Wednesday, June 16.
Alongside Thornhill MPP Peter Shurman, Hudak said the Tories will be travelling across Ontario to raise awareness of the Liberal-introduced HST, which is set to come into effect July 1.
The HST will blend the current eight per cent provincial sales tax with the five per cent GST, raising levies on scores of goods and services, including home heating fuel, gasoline, newspapers, gym memberships, haircuts and funerals.
"Sadly, as we know, (Premier) Dalton McGuinty's gas tax is a scant two weeks away of being in the pocket books of North York families," Hudak said in the parking lot of the Esso gas station at the southwest corner of Bathurst Street and Wilson Avenue. "The average family will pay $246 a year in gas prices alone. Dalton McGuinty is out of touch and GTA families are out of money. And the fact is the Liberal government will soon be out of time."
Hudak said he's asking families to log onto www.daltonsalestax.com to note what part of the HST frustrates them most.
But Willowdale Liberal MPP David Zimmer, who was also on hand during Hudak's appearance, said the HST will save businesses money through input tax credits, create 600,000 new jobs and lead to an 8.8 per cent increase in family incomes.
Zimmer said Hudak supported the HST until the McGuinty government introduced it and won't commit to repealing it, adding 93 per cent of Ontario families received a personal income tax cut in January.
"Until this past year Tim Hudak was one of the strongest proponents of the HST," Zimmer said, adding former Conservative finance ministers Janet Ecker and Jim Flaherty support the HST. "He's playing politics. The HST is designed to enhance and save the manufacturing sector in Ontario," Zimmer said.