Tony trashes Harper's tax deal with Iggy

NEWS RELEASE

TONY MARTIN, MP

************************** Harper shifts tax burden onto Ontario families

Surprise HST deal with Liberals will hit Ontario pocketbooks hard

OTTAWA - Ontarians are facing an eight percent increase in the cost of everything from funerals to car repairs, airline tickets, vitamins, movie tickets, summer camps and home heating because of a deal the Harper Conservatives have struck with the McGuinty Liberals, warns New Democrat Leader Jack Layton.

Harper’s surprise harmonised-sales-tax (HST) deal with Liberals, which will merge the provincial sales tax with the GST, will not only add the new tax to many items that are not now covered by the provincial sales tax, but will shift the tax burden from business onto Ontario families and consumers, says Layton.

“At a time when many Canadian families are struggling to pay their bills, Stephen Harper is raising the prices on everyday essentials, and, worse, spending billions to do it,” said Layton.

“Stephen Harper’s famous chorus is that there is no such thing as a good tax, and yet here he is paying provinces to agree with him on raising taxes,” he added.

The federal government is planning to spend $4.3 billion to get Ontario to agree to the newly expanded HST, which will come into effect July 1, 2010.

Tony Martin (Sault Ste. Marie) said New Democrats remain unequivocally opposed to the proposed HST.

“We are the only real voice of opposition to Harper’s plan to raise taxes on Ontario families,” said Martin.

Liberal leader Michael Ignatieff lent his party’s support to the Harper government’s mission to foist harmonized sales taxes on the consumers of Ontario, British Columbia, Saskatchewan, Manitoba and Prince Edward Island.

During debate on the last federal budget, the Liberals did not raise a peep in opposition to the HST.

Now, in the face of public outrage, the Liberal leader is flip-flopping.

“At best, Mr. Ignatieff’s position on the HST is ambiguous. At worst, it is dishonest,” said Layton. “New Democrats remain steadfast in our opposition to Stephen Harper’s plan to shift the tax burden onto Ontario families.”

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