Vancouver real estate and the HST

An ex-premier has warned that a harmonized sales tax will hurt the housing sector, but not everyone agrees with him.

Vancouver resident Rick Watts hawks HST barf bags before a rally at Kitsilano Secondary School.

Stephen HuiBefore the 2009 provincial election, Peter Simpson had a hunch that B.C. politicians would want to copy their Ontario counterparts and combine the GST with the provincial sales tax. By the start of the B.C. campaign, the federal government had already promised Ontario $4.3 billion over two years to do this. So Simpson, CEO of the Greater Vancouver Home Builders’ Association, knew there would likely be a big cash incentive for B.C. to harmonize its provincial sales tax with the GST.

Read more:   http://www.straight.com/article-301688/vancouver/real-estate-and-hst