TORONTO - Ontario's Progressive Conservatives have managed to set up a vote in the legislature next week on the looming harmonized sales tax in an attempt to embarrass the Liberal government.
Tory Lisa MacLeod introduced an Opposition motion that would postpone the HST's scheduled July 1 implementation until after "the Liberals have a mandate from the people," which would mean at least until the October 2011 provincial election.
Premier Dalton McGuinty promised not to raise taxes in the last election and the HST breaks that promise, said MacLeod.
"The HST is a $3-billion tax grab that will hit seniors, middle income families and small business the hardest," she said. "It's time that they had a say on Dalton McGuinty's plan to raise their taxes."
MacLeod said the vote next Wednesday will give backbench Liberals the opportunity to vote against the 13 per cent HST, which even McGuinty has admitted will mean higher taxes for consumers initially.
However, Revenue Minister John Wilkinson dismissed MacLeod's motion, and said the Liberals were confident the HST would help create nearly 600,000 jobs over the next decade.
"This is clearly just a ploy to shift focus away from the fact that the Conservatives don't have a plan for jobs and the economy," Wilkinson said in an email. "They won't even say they'd scrap the HST."
The Conservatives say they think the Liberals get as many complaints about the new single sales tax from constituents as opposition members have received, and want to see if any of the government backbenchers will vote against the HST.
The Tory motion is non-binding and really little more than an attempt to make the Liberals uncomfortable. The government could simply ignore the motion even in the unlikely event it did manage to get approval in the legislature.
The HST will add eight per cent to a range of goods not currently subject to the provincial sales tax, including gasoline, home heating fuel and services such as haircuts and dry cleaning.
