Dear reader.
Thank you for coming to my blog. I don’t blog often (or at least as often as I would like to blog), but hopefully this first entry under the category “Keen observations of a lame eye” will inspire me to write more often, and perhaps a bit more concise (I’m going to drag on a little longer with today’s entry). I look forward to your comments, but before you spend any of your time replying to my messages, please take a moment to review the disclaimer below:
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Now then, let’s get started:
Why the HST is bad….just bad!
I understand that it’s kind of out of context due to the date I am submitting this comment, but please bear with me as I punch out a few paragraphs as to why the HST is bad on a few levels.
Now, you don’t me to tell you that many of your everyday purchases and essential needs now (or well, for the last 12 months) cost you 8% more. So as a consumer your purchasing power has decreased significantly. I am sure that much like myself; you have probably made cuts to your grocery lists and perhaps use your home heating and cooling units much more prudently. And while I curl myself on my armchair wearing a sweater and a scarf, sipping on no name hot cocoa and watching medium quality videos from 1994 on Netflix (Since cable costs too much for me now), Dalton sends the consumer a cheque for 300 bucks to ease the pain. I don’t drive (because I chose not to) so I haven’t really felt the pinch like most of my associates (who commute to work) since the HST induction, by the onetime HST cheques are nothing but a cheap attempt by the Provincial Government to buy our votes this fall.
But the Liberals say it’s good for business and will create X amount of jobs. Personally, I have never heard of an overhead that actually improves cost and productivity, but let us humour Mr. Duncan for the sake of argument, and sneak a peak in the world of a Canadian Small Business operating in Ontario.
It’s August 2010, and my accounting employee knocks on my door. She proceeds to my desk holding a yellow post-it note. She informs me that “Mr. Sanchez” would like to speak with me as soon as possible. “Mr. Sanchez” of course is my longest standing and biggest client, so, of course as a company that prides itself in providing it’s clients the very best customer service precedes all other fiduciary duties.
The phone rings a couple of times, but eventually we get through the auto directory and punch in Mr. Sanchez extension. Once through to Mr. Sanchez, we engage in petty small talk about our business, our families and then get to the chase. Mr. Sanchez informs me that the invoice we sent to their company for the three months ending July 2010 is higher than usual, and Mr. Sanchez asked me if an error has occurred in our billing department. I open up the invoice, in addition to the invoice history the company has with Mr. Sanchez, and being unable to locate any errors with the invoice, politely inform him that as of July 1st 2010, we must charge and collect a 13% tax instead of a 5% tax.
Mr. Sanchez tells me that this increase would make the services that my company has provided him for so many years too costly, and less competitive than services Mr. Sanchez can retain from somewhere else. Mr. Sanchez tells me that he respects me as a businessman and is grateful of the years of quality service we have provided his firm, however, at these prices, Mr. Sanchez would be exploring other options.
Panicked, I tell Mr. Sanchez that I would look in to the possibility of making alterations to his invoice, in turn making the price point more appealing to him. After swapping numbers for a few minutes, we agree that it would be in both parties best interest to keep the price at “cost of service + 5%”, as it was for so many years.
As such, my company’s margin on the Sanchez account decreased 6.9%. The reason it decreased by 6.9% is due to the HST (which I must now collect). In order to maintain my big client, my Company must invoice Mr. Sanchez less, and collect more tax.
Soon after Mr. Sanchez, we received calls from Mr. Jones, Mr. Yaboah, Mr. Shi and Mr. Been all with the same question: “Did you guys raise your service rates?” Many clients threatened with cancellations and one client actually opted not to renew their service with us as the price point just wasn’t right. Free market you will say and I will accept that as a cost of doing business. But, that’s not what we are talking about here; we’re talking about how the HST creates jobs. Well it doesn’t, and at least in this Company’s take, it’s led to two dismissals in the last 6 months. It’s shrunken our margins, and made our Company less competitive in the global marketplace. On the client side, it now costs them more money to obtain and retain our services. And while my firm enjoys a slightly higher monthly cash flow, margins, revenues and ultimately profits have shrunk considerably.
I’m a small businessman and I believe that small businesses are the backbone of our economy. Sadly, the HST has turned its shoulder on us and I really can’t explain why they would do it.
But, small businesses and consumers aren’t the only ones affected by the HST. Craftsmen (like home renovators, plumbers and electricians) are too, with many in the industry taking it underground (cash deals only). Also the arts suffers dearly under the HST and here’s why. Let’s assume you are a part time hand made jewellery maker, or a painter, photographer who earned 22,000 dollars a year off the proceeds of selling your art. Under the GST, you did not have to charge and collect GST on any of your sales. There used to be a clause saying that one only needed to charge and collect GST on proceeds greater than 30,000 a year. Since the introduction of the HST, EVERYBODY must collect it. Whether you are making 5,000 on selling your crafts, 20,000, 35,000, 50,000 etc., you must charge and collect HST on your sales and services.
There’s a saying in the arts, that “Artists look to profit from their fame, not obscurity”. It’s not that different in the business world, and the best way to promote business and arts, is to reduce their overhead. Unfortunately, the HST has done the exact opposite and the Ontario Economy is about to bear its effects this fall.
Personally, I don’t believe jobs have recovered to the extent the Provincial Government would like us to believe (don’t forget a whopping 57,000 part time and seasonal jobs – that’s roughly 56% of job recovery totals; mushroomed out of nowhere a month before a key employment number was released). Under no circumstances do I feel it’s better for anyone between the ages of 19-24 to gain meaningful employment in Ontario (unemployment in this demographic is nearly 15% - and a recent study suggests that thousands of new grads and young professionals find themselves working unpaid internships – these thousands are not accounted for in the 15% unemployment statistic). Rather, the Liberal Party has dealt another blow to the backbone of the Canadian Economy (small businesses), deteriorated the middle class (with bloated energy bills), and has endangered our young people’s future abilities to remain positive about their opportunities as part of the work force.
Healthcare
I don’t believe I need to go on for too long about how the Healthcare system has deteriorated since the Smitherman days. Recent evidence is the surprise walkout held last week by Ontario Healthcare workers, who did their best to inform the public of the lack of front care assistance they have received from the current administration.
To add insult to injury, I recently broke my wrist. After checking my self in to emergency, I was sent home with a band aid and told to return after 3DAYS to see a fracture specialist. 3 DAYS!!!! With a broken wrist. For the record, I would like to note that the Hospital in question is a major hospital South of the 401 well within City Limits. This hospital recently closed it’s walk-in clinic. Thanks again George!
The Race in Trinity Spadina
I don’t know much about Rosario Marchese aside from the fact that most of his criticism stem from his oppositions to the Rent Tenancy Act. I don’t cast any blame for that, considering that the whole RTA and Ontario Tribunal are a big scam. Everything about the Ontario Tribunal reaps cronyism; from the fact that several local community tenant members are Government Funded Lawyers (see Parkdale, Trinspa) to the fact that the tribunal can’t meet demand (currently serving 800,000 claims a year….yeah, 800,000!!). It has tenants and landlords ranting and raving so I won’t go on about it too much.
Let’s get to the chase. You don’t get to keep a seat in a riding for so long, with each incremental win coming by a larger margin against a mostly Liberal opposition by being an ineffectual idiot as some candidate staffers have publicly suggested using their twitter accounts (maybe we can talk about libel another day).
Rosario finds himself in quite a unique situation. He’s an incumbent MP with no power. There’s a strong feeling of anti-incumbency amongst the electorate – this is clearly evident in opinion polls and the grits know it. You can see it in their strategy, and have already started identifying the pieces they are willing to sacrifice (see Fanshaw London Liberal MPP on Bill 177 – the public disclosure of cronies…sorry, I meant to say Government agencies CEO’s severance, payout and benefit packages) so they are pretty much making the statement themselves that their best case scenario would be to form strong opposition.
Now, given the absolute lack of a formidable candidate in Mike Yen from the Conservatives, and the woman that’s sucking her children’s college fund through a straw to fund her vanity driven campaigns for the grits, I can’t see Rosario loosing this. Especially, when at the Municipal (Layton, Vaughn) and Federal (Chow Chow) levels, I’d say Rosario coasts to victory without too much trouble.
I see many heads hanging in shame this October, and I don’t see too many of them wearing blue and orange. I can pretty much guarantee, that Rosario Marchese won’t be one of them.
Thank you for reading. I look forward to reading your comments.
With profound regards,
OtnosmohT
