Reducing the GST again?

[mr_helm 0]

The government of Canada has already lowered the GST by 1% now its another 1%?  Its rediculous.   We will only see a slight change in money if us Canadians buy something that is a great value, a house, car, or higher priced items. This is one of the many stupidest things that the governement has done to date. Im not going to name them all how ever. I dont mind paying 1 more penny on my food bill. It doesn't hurt me at all. 


Now the gov. said that they had a surplus and are lowering it because of that, in a few years that surplus is going to be gone, then they will raise taxes again, just keep it at the 14 or 15% now.  

Think of it this way:

If 200,000 people buy houses, and the 1% difference is, lets say 2,500, thats a loss of 500,000,000.

Think of where that $500 m can go to. Schools, hospitals, fixing roads, and other things that are in need.


Just thought I would post my opinion.

[JanYpe 17]

I take it the GST is a value added tax? Lowering it by 1% sounds like a mostly symbolic and political move. Not that I'd particularly mind a reduction like that from our current standard of 19%.

[Zelgadis 638]

GST is federal sales tax.

And I'm also against it. I might save $30 per year on a reduction like that, but I'm sure there will be some happy rich guys somewhere who will get a whopper of a discount on a Maybach on that one. Or their mansion.

How about this: Instead of a 1%, across-the-board cut, how about eliminating the GST on more essential goods, such as clothes and computers?

ISF

[Haljackey 17,242]

Well, the Conservative Party promised to lower the GST from 7% to 5% before the end of their term, so they are keeping their promise. Thats good that they are keeping their promises. Anyways, the government has a MASSIVE surplus right now, so lowering the GST will help balance things between the citizen and the government.

Anyways, the Canadian dollar is the strongest (major) currency on Earth right now, so lowering the GST 1% will help keep it strong!

[Zelgadis 638]

I'd save a lot more money on tax per year if the feds would support public transportation instead of cutting the GST. My public transit expenses just went up again by another $100 per year.

ISF

[toxicpiano 125]

Originally posted by: haljackey Anyways, the Canadian dollar is the strongest (major) currency on Earth right now, so lowering the GST 1% will help keep it strong!quote>

I'm pretty sure you'll find that the british pound is...

[beskhu3epnm 8]

British pound is, by quite a ways.

The best part about this is the amount of stuff I can order from the US. For ages, the Canadian dollar was worth about 60 cents US, now it's worth $1.10.

The disparity between the two nations in cost of goods is what I'd be more concerned about. You can by a truck in the US for $30,000, and the exact same truck in Canada is $42,000 (or something close to that), despite the current condition of the currencies.

But any GST break is fine with me. It was only supposed to be a temporary measure anyways. Off with it!!

[jplumbley 5]

Ummm.. Whoever thinks this will only save you a few cents or $30... Your not thinking about the big picture. Think about how much you spend in a year. Most people make $40k + per year here in Ontario just to stay above the poverty line. Now, what is 2% of $40k? $800... That is 1 months rent for someone making that much money. And if you make $80k per year, thats $1600...

Thats a months mortgage. Personally, it would be nice if they would start chipping off of the gas tax or crude oil tax, but there are 2 reason I dont think they should either:

1. The higher the gas price the more money gets put into our transit and road systems.

2. The higher the gas prices the higher the demand is for Hybrid and alternate fuel technology. If the price of gas rises more and more like it will, people will start demanding Alternate fuels like Hydrogen powered cars they have in Germany. Or cars that you plug into your wall outlet at night to charge the batteries. Or Ethonol fueled cars, or water fueled cars.

Ontario has some of the highest taxes in Canada at what will now be 13% after the GST is at 5%. I also have to applaud the Conservative Government for not breaking their promise, we've had too much of those broken promises from the Liberal's Dalton McGuilty (as Dean, Jason and Todd say) in Ontario.. He said he would lower taxes, then imposed the single largest tax hike in Ontarian history by imposing a $300, $600 or $900 health tax per family which was to help expand the Healthcare system and improve wait times for Surgery and Emergency. Let's just say, we are paying the extra taxes and the Healthcare system isnt any different.

[Haljackey 17,242]

Originally posted by: toxicpiano

Originally posted by: haljackey Anyways, the Canadian dollar is the strongest (major) currency on Earth right now, so lowering the GST 1% will help keep it strong!quote>

I'm pretty sure you'll find that the british pound is...quote>

What?  In value, that is correct.  I should have said that the Canadian Dollar was the strongest in terms of growth recently.  Although, since my last post, the currency has fell because the government is trying to pacify it through interests rates.  The soaring Loonie is doing both good and harm to our country; prices are generally lower, but the manufacturing industry is suffering.

---

Anyways, back on topic,

I agree with you jplumbley, lower taxes are a great thing, especially for those living on the poverty line.  This will also make businesses and consumers happier and will hopefully lower the huge surplus the government turns out each and every year.

Still, this is ironic though.  Taxes will be 13% here in Ontario, but they will be just 5% in Alberta.  (The Province of Alberta doesn't need PST [provincial sales tax] because of they are sitting on a huge oil patch if you didn't know.)   Go to the dollar store here, pay $1.13, go to Alberta and pay just $1.05!  Lucky!

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This just goes to show you that the Canadian Dollar is now an Oil dollar, and generally rises and falls with the price of oil. 

[jplumbley 5]

The value of the Canadian Dollar has risen as of late, but comparing it to world currencies we havent risen as much.  It still cost $1.35 CAD to buy 1 Euro, it was $1.45, 2 years ago when I went to the Azores.  While it was worth $0.75 USD 2 yrs ago and it is now worth $1.06 USD, a rise of $0.31 whereas the change of CAD to Euro has only changed $0.10.  The price of Crude Oil (nearing $100 USD a barrel) is mainly due to the weakness of the USD and the rise of the CAD is not really "rising" per se, it is the USD that is falling away.

Luckily to this point the Canadian economy has been broadened in recent years to include overseas trading to be a bigger part of our economy and we are not depending ourselves as much on the US as we had in the past.  Due to this broadening, our economy hasnt been impacted as much by the US economic weakness.  We dont have more money coming into our country due to "higher" oil prices, the oil prices are a correction due to the weakness of the USD.  The more Canada depends on overseas trade, the better our economy will do compared to the US economy, and the higher our dollar will rise vs the USD.  But, if Bush screws up the US economy any more we will start to feel the pinch up here.  Hopefully, the US economy will balnce out and not drop any further or else the entire world will be in trouble because the US is the biggest consumer in the world and is a major drive in the world economy.

[A Nonny Moose 8,261]

The drop in GST is a drop in the bucket.  The lowest fed income tax bracket has also been dropped to 15% from 15.5%.  Pfaugh!  That's just back to the proposed rate of the ousted Liberals.

To really produce a significant change in public purses, the best thing would be to allow the cities to collect half of the current gasoline tax for fuel bought inside its boundaries.  Zel, that's the way to finance public transit.

Wish I had some public transit.  There is absolutely nothing where I live, not even a commuter service down the main highway.