Cute HST poem

[twpArwen]

Yeah - I'm okay with taxes to an extent but we do live in a democracy so being able to criticize government decisions is part of the deal.

And for me - there is something I can do about it. I live in a province that doesn't have HST. I'm still paying only 5% GST in Alberta. But we have a campsite with our trailer in B.C. and spent most of our weekends there in the summers. Andrew is spending the whole month of July in B.C. We generally do some shopping in B.C. while we're out there but with the HST now there is a real incentive to just stock up in Calgary and not buy a thing while we're in B.C. Then the businesses in B.C. aren't getting any of our dollars at all - how does that help the province?

We aren't alone - it is very common in Calgary for people to have cottages, campsites etc in the towns close to AB like Invermere, Fernie, Golden, Revelstoke, etc. By the licence plates, half the cars in Invermere in the summers are from Alberta. Those are consumers with the choice of where to spend their dollars and if the taxes are dramatically different in one place than the other, the local businesses in B.C. are going to hurt for it.