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www.oakvillebeaver.com · OAKVILLE BEAVER Thursday, December 10, 2009 · 4 N O W O P E N Revenue Minister says HST Cynthia's Chinese is tax reform, not tax grab Restaurant An Unforgettable Dining Experience awaits you... By Tina Depko OAKVILLE BEAVER STAFF Enjoy fine Chinese cuisine in an atmosphere with the perfect mix of elegance and exuberance. 2 course DAILY lunch specials starting from only $ 95 8 2460 Neyagawa Blvd., #1, Oakville 905-338-1818 www.cynthiaschinese.com Mention this ad & receive a FREE order of MANGO SALAD on dine in or takeout. The Harmonized Sales Tax (HST) will help businesses, which will in turn boost the economy and create jobs, according to John Wilkinson. This was one of many claims the Ontario Minister of Revenue made on the hotly contested tax in front of a crowd of 200 business people during an Oakville Chamber of Commerce breakfast. The Minister remained upbeat throughout his 30-minute speech on HST, saying this is the right time and right tax reform for the economy. "Those businesses that have closed as a result (of the recession) are not coming back," he said. "So, we need to do something about that... It is in that context that this government has decided to do something that is politically dangerous, but from a policy point of view, it is exactly the right thing to do." The HST will take effect in July 2010 and will combine the eight per cent PST with the five per cent federal GST into a 13 per cent harmonized sales tax. The move means an extra eight per cent tax on thousands of items, such as gasoline, haircuts, veterinarian bills, airplane tickets and telephone bills. The federal government has offered Ontario a $4.3-billion package to help implement the HST. Wilkinson said that the biggest benefit of the HST is that it will create 591,000 jobs over 10 years. "In our world, we can't have high-quality public services, like our universities, hospitals and schools, and on the other hand have chronically-high unemployment," he said. "You have three classic ways of getting out of the situation we have now, with our historic deficit. We can slash, close 25 per cent of all the schools, hospitals, police, and reduce our support to municipalities; we could somehow ignore the power of compound interest and keep borrowing like there's no tomorrow, or we could decide to do whatever it takes to get people back to work." To offset costs for Ontarians, Premier Dalton McGuinty and his Liberal government has proposed a system of tax breaks. This legislation was passed Wednesday and will provide individuals, families and businesses with more than $15 billion in tax cuts over three years. This includes $4.5 billion in corporate income tax cuts starting July 1, 2010. The government says that most Ontario businesses will also receive input tax credits for sales tax See Wilkinson page 5