Packed into the pamphlet was also a 3-page spread covering reasons to support the HST citing academic, economic and comparative research for why British Columbia should adopt the tax. According to the information provided, in locations where HST has been implemented, wages increase, employment opportunities increase and prices of goods decrease. Residents were also told that prices on “every day items” would not be effected (i.e. groceries, children’s clothing and books).

BC Finance Minister Kevin Falcon reported early this week that the pamphlets were designed and set to be released at the same time as an anti-HST petition was being processed in court which led to the disposal of the pamphlets before their scheduled distribution to the public.

Falcon believed that the provincial government at the time wanted to capitalize on the positive momentum springing from the Olympics to use as a platform for communicating the merits of the HST to BC residents. Unfortunately, given the negative public perception of the tax and the petition being held in court, the Premier’s office decided to cancel the campaign believing the public would have a bad reaction.

Detailed information regarding the pamphlets was obtained by the Vancouver Sun after a drawn-out battle with the provincial government over the Freedom of Information Act. The detailed 10-page pamphlet was scheduled to be mailed to every BC household and cost taxpayers $780,000 dollars to design and print. It was also recently revealed that the BC government spent additional monies to design and print different versions of HST pamphlets for distribution. For various reasons, including a rejection from Elections BC, all the pamphlets were shredded.

Premier Christy Clark and Falcon have been in negotiations with the federal government to try to reduce the total repayment amount to Ottawa or eliminate the debt altogether. According to an official statement made by Falcon this week, the province will still have to pay back the full amount less interest he said would total close to $118 million.

And while Falcon assessed the deal to be fair for both the federal government and for BC, the anti-HST leader Bill Vander Zalm thought the deal was anything but fair.

Vander Zalm said he expected more from provincial negotiators assessing that the time that BC will have had the HST in place should have been taken into consideration given that the federal government will have collected an estimated $1 billion in extra tax dollars. Vander Zalm is unhappy with the outcome of the negotiation calling it a “disaster”.

Some financial analysts were also perplexed as to why the federal government failed to credit BC with the three-year HST term believing that the waiving of interest payments may be in lieu of credit.

Regardless of this new development in the ongoing saga surrounding the HST in BC, the timeline for switching back to the PST/GST system remains unchanged–still sitting at 2013. The provincial budget will suffer a hit for the 2013-2014 budget while the deal will push this year’s deficit to more than $3 billion.

Although nothing was said regarding any tax increases or program cuts, with a deficit of more than $3 billion and $1.6 billion in debt to pay off to the federal government, British Columbian taxpayers are sure to feel a negative impact as a result of the continuing HST controversy.

After a recent deficit projection was made by the provincial government reporting BC’s deficit to rise to a whopping $3.1 billion for 2011-2012, Premier Christy Clark put in a formal request to the federal government for a reduction of the amount owed. Premier Clark is hoping that the government will take the province’s “tight fiscal circumstances” into consideration and ascertain the necessity of balancing the books before making any formal decisions in the matter. According to federal sources however, the Stephen Harper government is not looking to reduce the amount owed by the province of BC.

Premier Clark is seeking credit for the time that the HST was in place (nearly 2 1/2 years once the HST is abolished in 2013) as well as an extended repayment period in order to pay back the remaining balance.

Put in effect on July 1, 2010, the HST, a combination of the provincial sales tax (PST) and government sales tax (GST) was to remain in effect for five years following the receipt of the $1.6 billion given as transitional aid to the province to assist with the changeover.

Federal sources have yet to comment on the extension of the repayment period.

New Brunswick, already at a 13 per cent Harmonized Sales Tax rate is one of the highest in the country. And although Premier Alward stated that the issues are not currently on the party’s agenda, he is refusing to rule out the possibility of having to raise the HST rate and implement tolls. This is all in response to the looming provincial deficit projected at $546 million.

According to New Brunswick’s Taxpayer Protection Act, Alward would be obligated to call an official referendum should he begin the process of raising the HST rate for the province. Even though this would directly go against Alward’s platform, other leaders are not surprised at the recent talks regarding a referendum.

Liberal leader Victor Boudreau expects that the province may see the referendum question added to the municipal ballots in six months’ time as it would be the economical approach to addressing the issue. While Boudreau is not surprised at the direction of Alward’s leadership, he maintains that raising taxes should be a last resort to addressing the province’s growing deficit and debt. According to Boudreau, jobs should be created, investors should be attracted and then finally, taxes should be addressed.

Municipal elections in New Brunswick are scheduled to take place in mid-May of 2012 when the province could be headed into a referendum vote in conjunction with elections.

A major debate in the recent Provincial election, removing the HST from heating costs has created tensions in Parliament and has led to a bill being introduced to address the issue.  MPP Michael Mantha who represents Northern Ontario constituents was the one responsible for bringing the bill to Parliament in hopes that it would bring about changes.

In a close vote of 54-50, all PC and NDP members of Parliament voted the bill through a second time.  While this has encouraged some MPPs the provincial Liberals have adamantly expressed their displeasure and vowed to vote down the bill before it becomes law.  According to provincial Finance Minister Dwight Duncan, the Liberals have already determined not to call the bill for a third time which will ensure its failure.  And in a recent statement, Duncan declared that in order to have the bill passed, the NDP and PC MPPs would have to defeat the government thus, calling another election.

The proposed bill would trim approximately $150-300 annually from Ontarians heating bills but ultimately cost the province $350 million a year from removing the 8 per cent from heating bills.

While Premier McGuinty stated that the bill is “[...] not a bad idea in and of itself” he is concerned with how the province would make up the $350 million.  McGuinty also believes that cutting the HST from heating bills is not necessarily the wisest course of action given the current provincial deficit of $16 billion.  The primary focus of the Liberal government is to address the needs of seniors by introducing and implementing $1,500 annual home renovation credit.  This plan is geared towards giving citizens a break on the cost of living and allowing seniors to live in their homes longer because of implemented home improvements such as wheelchair ramps.  According to McGuinty, if passed, the plan would stimulate the economy creating more than 10,000 jobs and generating $800 million in the construction industry.

It is clear that McGuinty and the Liberals will continue to focus their energy on other issues not surrounding the HST.

While NDP leader Andrea Horwarth and PC leader Tim Hudak have both committed to removing the HST from electricity and heating as well as Hudak removing the HST from gas,  McGuinty’s Liberals have had a different agenda altogether-an agenda that made its way into citizens’ mailboxes this week.

Following the final transition cheque that was to be received by Ontario citizens in June, there was no receipt, letter or friendly advisory issued along with the payment. This week however, many residents received a friendly reminder letter outlining the benefits of the HST creating an estimated 600,000 jobs, a more favourable foreign investment environment and of course, placing additional funds in people’s pockets. Conveniently, these letters were drafted on official provincial letterhead and arrived just prior to the provincial votes being cast. The letters also remind citizens of the Energy and Property tax credit they received as a result of McGuinty’s legislation.

And while McGuinty is denying any alleged ‘official’ connection to the letters, it is suspicious given that the letters were signed by the Premier himself.

As a result, Horwarth and Hudak are capitalizing on the public scrutiny of the HST in this election hoping that their highlights on McGuinty’s capital tax reductions and harmonization of the the taxes in Ontario will glean some votes for their respective parties.  In light of B.C.’s recent rejection of the harmonized tax system, some analysts are anticipating that the HST issue will play a large part in this provincial election.

As far as the polls are concerned however, the last publicized polls have indicated that the province may be headed for a minority Liberal government with both the NDP and PC parties fighting neck-in-neck for the opposition spot with the Green Party trailing far behind. Environmental issues are also said to play a role in this upcoming election Thursday, October 6, 2011.

Although the actual process of scrapping the tax is scheduled to take a minimum of 18 months, Federal Finance Minister Jim Flaherty sees the defeat as an obstacle for the federal agenda of attempting to harmonize all provincial taxation systems. After B.C.’s response, however, it is clear that this will not be possible in the near future.

A strong believer in the effectiveness of harmonized taxation systems, Flaherty stated that “provincial sales tax harmonization is the single most important step provinces with retail sales taxes could take to improve the competitiveness of Canadian businesses.” Flaherty has continued to try to convince provinces to move forward with harmonized systems assuring them that the federal government will help support the tumultuous transition period that occurs.

Political analysts are finding fault with Flaherty’s frustration though, claiming that the federal government should be more actively involved in the communication and marketing process of the tax to the provinces-given that the rejection of the taxation has so negatively impacted the federal plan. Seeing as the federal government pushed to implement the tax in the first place, it is thought that the federal government should bear some responsibility for the tax failure.

Other analysts claim that the federal outcry is not sincere and it is merely the provincial economies and governments involved that will ultimately pay the price for a tax policy gone wrong.

Just this past week, B.C. Finance Minister Falcon announced one of the anticipated cuts that the province will need to make in order to absorb the repayment of $1.6 billion in HST transition funding to the federal coffers. Operational costs will be slashed and Falcon is working on an extremely tight fiscal budget as compensation. B.C. residents may also be facing tax increases in other areas that Falcon describes as being “a last resort.”  Other consequences on a provincial and federal level will include the decrease in international investment in B.C. and possibly across Canada-a by-product of a poor economic climate and the reversal of the HST. This will undoubtedly have a negative impact on the economy of the province and country as a whole in an already difficult time.

Regardless of the consequences both federally and provincially, the continued tension and emotion-filled debate surrounding the HST is just further proof that in order for the west to be won when it comes to HST, Flaherty will have an extremely difficult battle ahead, thus, derailing federal plans overall.

In recent weeks, it has been confirmed that Premier McGuinty plans to raise the HST percentage if re-elected this fall while Tim Hudak has adamantly claimed that his party is seeking to reduce the HST and the financial burden it has placed on families. As many families have felt the pressures of the added HST on their bills this past year, the issue of the taxation system has become a prominent issue in the upcoming election.

Hudak has publicly committed to removing the HST at the gas pumps and reducing the cost of energy within the province as it relates to the HST. Hudak claims that “[families'] hydro bills are going through the roof and they need relief” from the taxation systems that McGuinty has put in place including the mandatory ’smart meters’ which Hudak plans to remove if elected.

By reducing home hydro and heating bills, Hudak hopes to reduce Ontarians overall costs annually by approximately $275.

In a recently released NDP party ad, leader Andrea Horwath is promising to do the same. By removing the HST from hydro bills the ad claims the NDP party will “[...] make life affordable by taking the HST off essentials like hydro, heating and gas.” In response to the NDP party’s claim however, Hudak has released statements to the public informing voters that the NDP party will not be reducing any taxes until 2015 according to their platform.

As the October election draws near, the parties are neck in neck for the majority of the votes according to a recent poll. Attack ads have been launched from both the Liberal and PC camps while the NDP party has refused to release mud-slinging-type ads for the campaign having resorted to a positive approach to gain support from voters.

Ontario residents will go to the polls on October 6 for the provincial election taking the HST and surrounding tax issues into consideration before determining the next provincial leader.

In response to voters concern over the HST, Ontario NDP leader Andrea Horwath is building a platform promising to reduce the costs of heating and electricity as well as gasoline by lowering the HST percentage. According to Howarth, “the HST has left Ontarians feeling the squeeze.” Horwath believes that if households are in order financially, then Ontario’s economic state will follow suit. The party plans to reduce the tax by one per cent over the course of four years and setting a cap on gas prices.

Also getting on the HST election bandwagon are the provincial Tories. Conservative candidate Tim Hudak is vowing to not only reduce the HST burden placed on Ontario families but also the eco tax introduced by Liberal leader Dalton McGuinty. Hudak claims that only his government would truly relieve families with their plan to remove the HST and Debt Retirement Charge off of heating and energy bills as well as reduce income taxes which Hudak states only “add to the family burden.”

And while the competing parties address the HST issue at hand, Premier McGuinty has yet to offer voters any relief on the HST issue. In fact, McGuinty continues to maintain his stance stating that in order to meet the needs of the province by making reforms to the education and health care system, the HST will need to stay in place to generate revenues.

Whether or not this stance will cost McGuinty the October 6 election is yet to be seen but in light of the referendum in BC, Ontario voters are taking a closer look at their own HST and making it an election issue.

Business owners and others who are pro-HST continue to express their views via public means urging residents to vote based on facts rather than emotion-hinting that the general public is choosing to abolish the HST based on the manner in which it was introduced by the provincial government as opposed to actual facts. Although many residents are outraged at the increases on various services and items, the fact remains that B.C. currently has the lowest provincial tax rate in the country. Whether the province really has increased the competitive edge for international investment as well as increased jobs, is yet to be seen, but businesses are joining forces to convince voters that the future looks bright for the province under the tax umbrella of the HST.

In response to HST supporters however, it is difficult to determine the true facts in this highly emotional debate. Monies spent on distributing information to voters has been widely criticized (although equal amounts were allotted for both sides of the campaign) and controversial ads and misleading information from both camps have led the public to question everything they have been presented. Public forums led to positive discussion with an average of 66% participation from residents but clearly raised more questions and concerns in the process.

As the votes continue to be cast it can be assumed that people on both sides of the HST debate in B.C. can agree on one thing: regardless of the outcome, the Liberals will have an uphill battle in the next election.