British Columbia

Citizens’ campaign against

Continued from page 1
all services. It is a comprehensive, massive
new tax grab.

It is highly regressive. It places the burden
on those least able to pay. The same tax
amount will be paid to purchase a list of
g00ds, regardless of one’s income. Those
With low or middle incomes will be hardest
hit, since $100 to them is critical, but
chicken feed to a millionaire.

In the weeks ahead the government will
attempt to convince the public that the GST
1S a fair tax. They will claim that it will cut
down the “deficit,” that it will have little

"effect on inflation (a one-shot 2.25 per cent
hike), and that the poor will actually be
better off a result!

They will do so using three main “argu-
ments.” The first has to do with the provi-
Sion of exemptions. These exemptions
Include basic groceries for one’s own prepa-
tation, prescription drugs, health and dental
Care, daycare services, residential rents (not
hotels, except for foreign tourists), educa-
tion services, most municipal government
Services, exports, insurance, exploration
costs for natural resources, gambling and
Sporting income, government grants and
Subsidies, and sales of businesses.

The second argument has do to with
changes in the Income Tax Act. They are as
follows:

© For families earning $24,800 or less, a
GST credit of $275 per adult and $100 per
child will be provided.

© For all those in the federal income tax
bracket from $28,700 to $57,400, the tax
Tate will be reduced from 26 per cent to 25
Per cent.

Tory propaganda claims that people in
these brackets will be better off, are simply
that — propaganda.

_ Everything depends on the actual spend-
ing patterns of people. More importantly, it

depends on whether or not the price’ of

800ds manufactured in Canada, which now
has the 13.5 per cent manufacturer’s tax
built into it, will remain the same.

If it does, and given the monopoly struc-
ture in place in Canada it likely will, then
this extra “price hike.” will form the basis
for additional profits for big business, prof-
its obtained at the expense of low and mid-
dle income consumers.

Thirdly, the government has provided for
certain other partial rebates for some pur-
Chases. The most significant one is for the
Purchase of new residential premises.

Generally the white paper says that for a
house of $310,000 or less, the effective
rebate will be 4.5 per cent, half of the nine
Per cent.

But according to David Anderson, a

Environment
walk slated

_ Canada’s first Walk for the Environment
aS Slated to take place on Saturday, Sept. 16,
ginning at noon at Kits Beach in Van-

ae and winding up at Queen Elizabeth
ark,

More than 125 labour, environmental,
church, native and business groups have
Sponsored the walk, which features speak-
éts Elizabeth May, a respected Canadian
€nvironmentalist, and Greenpeace co-
Ounder Bob Hunter.

Organizers say the level of support indi-
Cates that thousands will participate in the
Walk, which is billed as a “garbage-free
€vent” in which participants are encouraged
‘obringa Picnic lunch and use only recycla-

le containers,

For further information phone Walk for
the Environment at the Western Canada

ilderness Committee office, 683-8220.

€ address is 20 Water St., Vancouver.

Vancouver sales tax consultant, in an article
of Aug. 16 in the Vancouver Sun, the GST
will increase the cost of a $190,000 Van-
couver house by $5,100, not $1,650 as
claimed in Wilson’s white paper.

Moreover, Anderson is supported by
representatives of Coopers and Lybrand
Co. and Touche Ross Co., two of the big-
gest tax accounting firms in the country.

The white paper says: “The government
recognizes that the replacement tax — the
new Goods and Services Tax — represents
a major change in the manner in which the
federal government collects its sales tax
revenue.

“For this reason, the government has had
extensive consultations with Canadians
since proposing sales tax reform in June,
1987.”

This is the big lie, pure and simple!

First, it is not a replacement tax at all, but
a qualitatively new one.

Second, it is not the manner in which it
collects its revenues but from whom and
how much.

Third, the extensive consultations since
June, 1987 included absolute silence during
the federal election of 1988. They didn’t
dare try to present this tax then, for fear of
being defeated at the polls.

Fourth, the government on Aug. 8
announced that all those Canadians wish-
ing to make representations to the Com-
mons Standing Committee on Finance,
must submit a written brief and synopsis
and get them to the Clerk of the committee,
Room 629 Wellington Building, Ottawa,
before Sept. 15.

But even if this difficult deadline is met,
the committee, whose chairman is Don
Blenkarn MP (458D, Centre Block, House
of Commons, Ottawa), will then arbitrarily
decide just exactly. who it will hear when it

, begins linjited appearances acrossthe coun- _
ee a

Hearings. are scheduled tentatively for
Vancouver in the first week of October
Massive pressure needs to be put on Blen-
karn and the Tory cabinet to demand that
all those who wish to make presentations be
allowed to do so and in whatever form they
decide.

It is ordinary citizens that are most
affected. They must have the full right to
appear. Appearances should not be limited
to Tory big-business supporters and so-
called tax experts.

The tax grab, if implemented, will set
loose tremendous inflationary pressure,
adversely affecting ordinary people. A
fightback campaign to protect living stand-
ards needs to be organized and organized
quickly.

Most of the provincial premiers are
opposed, but they are not united on an
alternative, and some like Bill Vander Zalm,
want to cut back needed social services
instead.

Indications are that municipal govern-
ments are opposed, as are labour, consumer
groups and small businesses.

The main lesson from the anti free-trade
campaign was the necessity to mount a
massive co-ordinated action program across
the country. What is needed is a Canada-
wide citizens group to oppose the tax grab.

Such a group needs to be lead by the
labour movement, and it is necessary that it
develop an alternative tax program, one
that makes big business pay its proper
share, one that can be supported by the vast
majority of Canadian citizens.

A Vancouver component has been
formed. Inquiries can be directed to the
Temporary Vancouver Consumers Com-
mittee Opposed to the Nine Per Cent
Goods and Services Tax, c/o 2066 Parker
St., Vancouver, V5L 2L5.

Bruce Yorke an economist and former
alderman in the city of Vancouver is currently
taking up the campaign against the GST on
behalf of the Committee of Progressive Elec-
tors.

se

GST urged

WILSON, GST TECHNICAL PAPERS ... Tories ‘didn’t dare’ introduce sales tax in

1988 election campaign.

TORONTO — Four out of five
Canadians oppose taxation of books,

“sand nearly-sever. out-of 140 are against «~~.
taxing magazines, according to the
recently formed Don’t Tax Reading
Coalition. The coalition argues that
Treading materials should be excluded
from the proposed Tory Goods and
Services Tax, scheduled to kick in
January, 1991.

On August 15 the coalition released
the results of an opinion poll of 2,000
Canadians carried out in July by
Environics Research Group Limited. A
population sampling of this size is
accurate within 2.2 percentage points
19 times out of 20.

Eighty-three per cent of those polled
disagreed with the taxation of books
and 66 per cent disagreed with the
taxation of magazines. Under the
Goods and Services Tax, as proposed
by Finance Minister Michael Wilson,
consumers will pay a nine per cent tax
on the retail price of all books and
magazines.

For the publishing and bookselling
industries and their customers the tax is
unprecedented — magazines and
books have been free of federal sales
tax since Confederation.

Stephen Lewis, the coalition’s
patron, in commenting on the poll,
said: “It is evident that Canadians place
an intrinsically high value on the
importance of reading, and do not
believe this is an appropriate area for
new taxation.”

The former Canadian ambassador to
the United Nations added: “Canadians
are obviously concerned about literacy
and productivity and view reading
skills as essential social assets.” The
Environics poll revealed that 59 per
cent of Canadians felt that the
country’s productivity will decline if the
proposed tax is implemented on
reading materials.

The Don’t Tax Reading Coalition
has maintained that sales of Canadian

books and magazines would be
adversely affected by the proposed new
tax. In-addition;the-Coalition predicts
that libraries — their budgets already
stretched to the limit —could not
provide the increased level of service
which would be demanded of them as
consumer purchases at bookstores and
news stands decline.

The coalition is opposed to the
imposition of the General Sales Tax on
books and magazines on the grounds
that taxation of reading materials
reduces public access to information
and education. As well, according to
the coalition, experts in the book and
magazine publishing and marketing
fields predict that the 100 per cent
increase in taxation would reduce sales
and put many publishers and
booksellers at risk.

Small, independent publishing firms
and magazines, and in general the
whole alternative news publishing
industry, are particularly at risk with
the new tax.

Furthermore, the coalition charged,
the taxation of reading material runs
contrary to the encouragement and
development of distinctive Canadian
cultures and conflicts with attempts to
promote literacy in Canada. The
coalition said tax-free reading is a
matter of principle and a necessity for
modern society and the development of
democracy.

The Don’t Tax Reading Coalition
announced that it will launch a public
campaign to build support for the tax-
free status of books and magazines
immediately. The group will appear
before the House of Commons
Committee on Finance to press its case.

The coalition is an umbrella
organization representing the
Association of Canadian Publishers,
Canadian Book Publishers’ Council,
Canadian Booksellers Association,
Canadian Periodical Publishers’
Association and the Periodical
Marketers of Canada.

Pacific Tribune, August 28, 1989 « 3