Communications
The Communications Committee is charged with managing and
facilitating communication with HBSCA's board of directors, local residents,
and the city. More specifically, the committee solicits input from residents
regarding their needs; determines what communications
resources HBSCA
currently has and how they can be improved; provides assistance with
communication resources recommended to meet specific neighbourhood needs;
and administers the HBSCA website.
The website includes information of interest regarding current
events, upcoming meetings, and community issues. It is produced with
information gathered from the HBSCA board of directors to ensure important
information is available to our membership.
With the
current hot-button issue in our community being the upcoming Harmonized
Sales Tax (HST), we thought we would use this page to feature content on the
matter.
The Harmonized
Sales Tax (HST)
In its budget delivered
on March 26, 2009, the government proposed harmonizing the provincial sales
tax with the federal Goods and Services tax.
At a special caucus meeting held on August
26, 2009, the Premier announced that he expects implementation of the tax to
proceed. According to the
government's announcement, the HST will reduce the paperwork burden for
Ontario businesses, lessen government staffing requirements, and cut costs.
The government expects that these savings will be passed on to
consumers. It will also
introduce income tax cuts, and a one-time
payment to
"qualified individuals" of $1,000 (for couples) and $300 (for single
persons), respectively.
However, rather than applying the new tax to only those
products and services that now charge both taxes, HST will be applicable to
almost all goods and services that do not currently attract PST, including,
but not limited to, all utilities, professional fees, and government and
city services. In fact, almost
everything currently without PST will cost 8% more.
This tax has a much
greater impact on the large portion of the Ontario population that lives in
condominiums: on July 1, 2010,
our common elements fees will increase by an estimated 6% to 8%, with some
estimates suggesting much higher increases, just to accommodate this tax in
the operating budgets and the reserve funds.
This is, of course, in addition to the usual annual increases to pay
for the various fees levied by utilities providers and city services,
inflation, and normal reserve fund requirements.
The HBSCA board of
directors met with Laurel Broten, Etobicoke-Lakeshore Member of Parliament,
on July 16, 2009 to bring our concerns regarding the implementation of the
HST to her attention. HBSCA will
keep residents informed of the outcome of this and future discussions with
Ms Broten, and provide information as it becomes available.
The following pertain to
initiatives HBSCA has led:
•
July 7, 2009 - Memo to Laurel Broten, MPP Etobicoke-Lakeshore from Judi
Richter-Jacobs, HBSCA Vice President
•
July 16, 2009 - Summary of the minutes from the board's meeting with Laurel
Broten
Various other
authorities have also written articles on the topic, please see below:
•
May
29, 2009 – Letter from John Oakes, Brookfield Residential to The Honourable
Dalton McGuinty
•
June 5, 2009 – Association of Condominium Managers of Ontario (ACMO) letter
to The Honourable Dalton McGuinty
•
Summer 2009 – Condominium Manager (CM) Magazine, Implications for Condos of
the Harmonized Sales Tax (HST) by John Warren, CA