A new, user friendly website will be up and running shortly to provide information on the Harmonized Sales Tax (HST).
While there has been a provincial HST Information Office running online since October 2010, the difference with the new version is it will be a standalone website, rather than being run by the Ministry of Finance.
Cariboo-Chilcotin MLA Donna Barnett explained the current website is confusing and difficult to use.
“The [website] that is there now is not that user friendly; to me it’s very complicated and complex. If you’re a real computer whiz, it’s easy; but for ordinary people, I find a lot of websites are too complicated.”
The easier-to-use website is expected to be operating within a week or two, she said, adding if people still have a problem getting information or don’t use a computer, they are encouraged to call her offices in the Cariboo-Chilcotin riding.
Barnett noted the focus of the new website is to get the correct information to the public about the HST in advance of the referendum, and as soon as the online address is available, she will notify the media.
The existing HST Information Office provides HST facts as well, but it also polled visitors and focus groups, and then released the results in mid-December.
The complete research results are available at www.gov.bc.ca/hst.
When it was created last fall, the NDP stated the B.C. Liberal government’s Information Office was a ridiculous waste of public funds and would waste many more thousands of dollars trying to gloss over the HST.
Said NDP house leader Mike Farnworth: “... the B.C. Liberals are squandering more funds in a desperate and pathetic attempt to change public opinion about a tax shift they lied about in the last election.”
Barnett didn’t have information available on the costs of either website, but noted that there was some misunderstanding regarding the extent of the HST Information Office.
The MLA explained it was never the ministry’s intent to open a bunch of offices, as some people may have mistakenly believed, but rather to set up an informative website to enable British Columbians to have an informed vote.
BC First spokesperson Chris Delaney said that with any B.C. Liberal HST websites, the problem lies with the facts they are not telling you.
“It’s all a bit of smoke-and-mirrors designed to get people to forget that $2 billion is being transferred from corporations onto citizens in terms of tax burden.”
He added the websites have arrived a bit late to tell people what the new tax is costing them, when they are already experiencing and living with the impact on a daily basis.
