HST Supporters Predict Economic Price

ESQUIMALT — They won't be hanging up the nail-gun now at Downs Construction, but the Harmonized Sales Tax was kind to the company's 55 employees. "The first thing my wife and I did is calculate the savings the HST meant to us, and distributed those savings to our staff in the way of raises" says Owner Bill Downs.

Downs promises the raises will survive the HST's demise, but he fears his business, and our economy, will suffer. "We're already facing rough times in the economy in British Columbia, and with the U.S. economy tanking that isn't helping our economy any and I think this is going to be one more blow."

Ron Vissers says the HST has been good for business at Sidney Tire, and he wonders if British Columbians are going to regret the way they voted. "I think we'll know in a year from now. Somebody's going to have to pay the piper. If we want the standard of living we have, somebody has to pay the taxes."

Management at Nanaimo's Coast Bastion Inn says the hotel is now going to have to look at scaling back an ambitious capital expenditure plan, and make some big purchases sooner than expected. "We're going to try to fast-track it, to get as many big purchases through before the HST expires" says General Manager Volker Grady.

Bruce Carter from the Greater Victoria Chamber of Commerce worries about the exact opposite happening when shoppers realize they can save on some items if they wait. "We'll see buyer behavior where people who are waiting to see whether the HST is coming or going are now going to say well I'm just going to wait until we have a new PST."

Reaction to the referendum result on Twitter was frenzied and often negative. The social media crowd is seizing on the massive amount of money Finance Minister Kevin Falcon has confirmed BC will now have to pay back to Ottawa.

One person tweets: "Can we have another referendum please? Should the people who voted down the HST pay the $1.6B back to the federal government?"

Another laments: "Where do you propose to get the $1.6B we owe the feds? Cuts, tax increases?"

Falcon admits that will be a "challenge."