Some of the Highest Taxes in the Country

NS: Comprehensive tax review needed
By Darrell Cole, Transcontinental Media

Source: The Amherst Daily News, Aug. 5/10

[AMHERST, NS] – Reducing the HST alone will not solve the cross-border shopping issue that exists between Cumberland County and neighbouring New Brunswick, says Liberal leader Stephen McNeil.

Responding to questions during a town hall-style public meeting at Amherst Regional High School, McNeil says he would not have increased the HST by two per cent to fight the deficit, but would have looked at the province’s entire tax system.

“We have some of the highest taxes in the country. To raise the HST from 13 to 15 per cent actually created a larger problem in this community (than the one) the NDP said they were going to fix,” McNeil says. “Now people aren’t just leaving for the price of gas, they’re leaving for every commodity and everything you want. It absolutely makes no sense.”

McNeil says his party has been calling for a comprehensive tax review for several years. In many cases, he adds, government adjusts one tax without thinking of its impact on other taxes.

“It’s no good to look at one tax because you can’t understand the unintended consequences of changing that tax two or three years down the road if you don’t look at the totality of our tax system,” McNeil says. “What we would encourage this government to do is instead of waiting a few years down the road and being thrown out of government so we can do it, steal our idea now and have a comprehensive tax review.”

This tax review should include extensive consultations across the province in which government actually listens to Nova Scotians instead of holding talks similar to what Finance Minister Graham Steele did during his Back to Balance tour.