Joyce Savoline - Your Burlington MPP

PDF Article: The New Malnourishment

Website: www.daniellesplace.org 

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(Queen’s Park) – Today in the Legislature, Ontario PC Leader Tim Hudak asked Dalton McGuinty what had happened to his principals since he became Premier.  On December 6^th, 1999, Leader of the Official Opposition, Dalton McGuinty said, “Public hearings; those two words go together nicely if you believe in true democracy.”  Today the Premier is marching to a different tune and refuses to hold public consultations to review his $3 billion HST tax grab.  He is instead using procedural tactics to try and ram through his HST legislation.   

“Where did the Dalton McGuinty, that we once knew, go?” asked Burlington MPP, Joyce Savoline.  “I find it inconceivable that the Premier has turned his back on true democracy.  He isn’t giving Ontarians the opportunity to be heard, when they will be left struggling to pay the bills as a result of the HST. 

The HST will blend the Goods and Services Tax (GST) and the Provincial Sales Tax (PST) to a single 13% sales tax (HST), which means the 8% PST will be applied to a wide range of goods and services previously not subject to the tax.  For the average middle-income family of four, it is estimated that the HST would mean up to $2,500 per year in additional sales tax.  Yet despite this new tax burden, the Premier refuses to hold public consultation and so doesn’t believe that Ontarians should have a voice.   

“The HST is a massive new $3 billion tax grab that will leave Ontarians paying more for, a long list of things including, filling up the car, home heating, using the internet and even funeral services,” says Savoline.  “Ontarians deserve the right to public consultations and the the PC Caucus will continue to use every available tool at our disposal to demand Ontarians are given the right to speak up on the HST.”

For more information contact:

Joyce Savoline, MPP

(416) 325-5362

(Queen’s Park) – This week the McGuinty Liberals began the process of rushing through their Harmonized Sales Tax (HST) Legislation.  The McGuinty Liberals have decided to ram this piece of Legislation through with minimal debate and no opportunity for province-wide public consultation and review. 

The HST will blend the Goods and Services Tax (GST) and the Provincial Sales Tax (PST) to a single 13% sales tax, which means the 8% percent PST will be applied to a wide range of goods and services previously not subject to the tax.  

“The HST is a massive new $3 billion tax grab that will leave Ontarians paying more for a long list of things, including filling up the car, home heating, using the internet and even funeral services,” says Savoline.  “The HST is the largest tax grab in Ontario’s history and the McGuinty Liberals should be ashamed that they are using procedural tactics to sneak this Bill through.”  

The Ontario PC Caucus has been challenging the McGuinty Liberals on their HST proposal for months.  The McGuinty Liberals’ decision last week to exempt fast food purchases under $4 and newspaper subscriptions provides further proof that the McGuinty Liberals HST is bad policy that was not properly thought through. 

“For the average middle-income family of four, it is estimated that the HST would mean up to $2,500 per year in additional sales taxes,” says Savoline.  “When you look at these figures it is no wonder the McGuinty Liberals are in a rush to pass this piece of Legislation without properly informing the public of the consequences and without input.”    

The Ontario PC Caucus will continue to use every available tool at our disposal to defend Ontarians and stop the HST from coming into effect.  Unlike the McGuinty Liberals, we are listening to Ontarians province-wide who oppose this massive $3 billion tax grab in these hard economic times.   

For more information contact:

Joyce Savoline, MPP

(416) 325-5362

Mrs. Joyce Savoline: I agree with much of what the previous speaker has said. In fact, I believe that what this bill is doing is an end run on public trust. The public is expecting a meaningful change as a result of all these scandals, and the government is playing the game of avoid, avoid, avoid: “What can we do to not really stand up to our responsibility?”

This should not be a public relations exercise and a damage control exercise that we see happening here. The people really deserve more. They deserve real accountability, real transparency and a real, direct oversight by this government.

By passing this responsibility on to the Integrity Commissioner, I think this is a clear admission that this government and its ministers are not up to the job. They have to pass it on to somebody else. The public is not being fooled by this shell game of who is responsible for what, and by passing this responsibility off, this government is not able to manage. The proposed Bill 201 is clear evidence that this government is totally lost and has no idea, absolutely no idea, how to move forward except by delegating their authority: “Let somebody else do it. Let somebody else carry the can, so if something goes wrong, we can’t get blamed, because it’s all arm’s-length.” Bill 201 has very little substance. So the devil is in the details, and you know as well as I do that the details are the regs, the regulations that the staff will write that we have no input into.