PRINCE GEORGE – As we head into the busy Christmas shopping season, the federal government proposes dropping the GST on certain items, such as spirits: Beer, wine, et cetra. In fact, here is the list:
*Prepared foods (vegetable trays, pre-made meals, salads, and sandwiches)
*Restaurant meals (dine-in, takeout, or delivery)
*Snacks, (chips, candy, and granola bars)
*Beer, wine, cider, and pre-mixed alcoholic beverages below 7 per cent alcohol
*Children’s clothing and footwear, car seats, and diapers.
*Children’s toys (board games, dolls, and video game consoles)
*Books
*Christmas trees
A headache for small businesses?
“Politics aside more money in our customers’ pockets is a great thing. However, it’s not so easy as just flipping a switch and not charging GST on things,” says Doug Bell, Owner of the Northern Lights Estate Winery. “It becomes much more difficult over time for us to be able to, on a very specific day, take it off of certain items, leave it on certain items, the reconciliation and how we represent that in our reporting to the government can also be more difficult.”
The GST in BC right now is five per cent and, he says, unless shopping habits change drastically, the impact on both the vendor and the consumer will be negligible.
“The GST exemption is going to be on items that you purchase every day or low-cost items. So unless you’re changing your buying behaviours and going to buy a lot of wine over a very short period of time, chances are it’s probably not going to impact you to a great deal. But hopefully, there is a little bit of money left in your bank account at the end of the week so that you can go for that dinner that maybe you weren’t planning on doing before now.”
The idea of scrapping the GST was lobbied for hard by the NDP federally and, while it’s a positive step, it doesn’t go far enough.
“We’re not finished. As I said, the NDP has been demanding much more than this. We’re going to keep pushing the government to bring in permanent affordability measures that help working and middle-class families make ends meet,” says Taylor Bachrach, MP for Skeena-Bulkley Valley. And absolutely, you know, every time we demand things that the Liberals – when they do cave – they come forward with something that isn’t exactly what we were pushing for.”
The NDP is pushing for a permanent end to the GST and Bell says dropping the GST for good is much like robbing Peter to pay Paul.
“From a small business standpoint, what we want to do is we want to provide the most valuable experience for our customers as possible, and we want to do it for the lowest price as possible,” says Bell. “But there are a lot of other factors in terms of the debt that our governments are incurring and that ultimately comes back to us in taxes in other ways or interest that our kids are going to pay. So from my standpoint, more money in our customers’ pockets is a great thing, but it’s a bigger issue and everyone’s going to have to figure out how to deal with it in their own way.”
He says what adds to the challenges for small businesses is the confusion for customers, especially as the reprieve will only last for two months.
