Chamber remains mum on HST survey results

SUMMERSIDE - The verdict is in on how the city business community feels about a blended tax system but the Greater Summerside Chamber of Commerce isn't releasing the results just yet.
"We are set up to meet with (Provincial Treasurer) Wes Sheridan and some other local MLAs and what we would like to do first is have our meeting with them and then release the results back to our members and then we'd like to talk to the media," said chamber president Rudy Smith.
The chamber will be meeting with Sheridan on Monday, Nov. 30.
"That Monday we will meet with him and on that day we'll release our numbers back to the members as well," he said. "I want to do that before releasing the results to the media."
The chamber is wrestling with how it will deal with a proposed blending of the Provincial Sales Tax with the Goods and Services Tax to a single Harmonized Tax.
The province has so far resisted pressure from the federal government to harmonize the two taxes because it feels it would be unfair to many islanders. Under the present system, there are two taxes on retail items and services: the Goods and Services Tax (GST) of five per cent and a Provincial Sales Tax of 10 per cent. Not all services are subject to both taxes. Some items - such as heating fuel, electricity, unprocessed food and clothing - are only subject to the five per cent GST. Other items and services include the full 15 per cent levy.
Smith said the chamber conducted a survey on the HST about two years ago for the chamber members with a single question asking the members if they favoured a harmonized tax over the current split provincial sales tax (PST) and the goods and services tax (GST).
"This time we put more educational material in front of them," the chamber president said. "We said here's a bunch of different categories and here is how it's going to affect different sectors. Here's what the changed tax proposal will be, from 15.5 per cent down to 13 per cent but it's going to hit a lot more basic products. A lot more education went into this one and I think now we've got a truer reflection of what the business community truly feels about it because we've educated them a little bit more."
Smith said the response from the chamber was strong and covered a wide cross section of the business community.