Ontario Hansard - 24-November2009

Ms. Lisa MacLeod: I appreciate the opportunity to join debate today. As you know, under the leadership of Tim Hudak and the stewardship of our good friend from Parry Sound-Muskoka, our finance critic, the Progressive Conservative caucus, has opposed this piece of legislation. Not only have we opposed this piece of legislation, but we also believe there need to be public hearings on this HST $3-billion tax grab.

Until the Liberals call public consultation into this piece of legislation, I'm going to have to call for adjournment of debate.

Ms. Lisa MacLeod: Thank you very much, Madam Speaker. It's a pleasure to be able to speak once again to the HST legislation, as we did yesterday with our opposition motion calling for further public debate into the HST legislation and this 8% tax grab.

There are six concerns that we have on the legislation.

Obviously, under the HST, Ontario will relinquish some of its powers, Constitution-granted taxation powers, to the whims of future federal governments.

We're also concerned that under the HST it is likely that tax-included pricing, or hidden taxation, will come to Ontario because of an obscure law that Jean Chrétien brought in in 1997.

There's also no evidence that harmonized sales taxes work at either the provincial or national level anywhere else in the world, despite what the minister tells us.

We also are concerned that there will be hidden costs for Ontario businesses due to compliance; whether that's their accounting fees or their legal fees or any other advice that they may need, there will be hidden costs for Ontario businesses.

We also feel they will not in some cases be able to reduce their base prices after the implementation of the HST despite the fact that the government continually tells Ontarians they are going to see lower prices. We don't believe that at all, because it is going to be an 8% tax grab, a $3-billion tax grab, on the middle class and the seniors in this province.

And finally, the most important and I think significant point that the government continually forgets to tell Ontarians when they're talking about the HST is that it will be impossible to repeal. They have locked us in for five years. The next government is going to have to deal with this legislation, and that, to me, is not fair. Not only is that not fair; there are massive penalties. Ontarians will be forced to pay $4.3 billion back from the bribes that they are going to give out after they force this legislation through the Ontario Legislature. And I'm going to tell you, Madam Chair, Ontarians don't want that. They don't want to cede their constitutional powers; they don't want to cede their ability to have direct taxes. And because they will not call public debate, I have no other option in the Ontario Legislature today than to call for adjournment of the House.