Chamber rebutts Vander Zalm's criticisms
By Kyra Hoggan
During a recent visit to Castlegar promoting his anti-HST (Harmonized Sales Tax) movement, former premier Bill Vander Zalm took offered sweeping criticisms of the B .C. Chamber of Commerce (CoC) and its support of the HST.
Vander Zalm said the people supporting the HST were largely high-income-earners in the $200,000/year-plus realm. He also said the B.C. CoC is comprised mostly of what he called “a downtown group” in reference to the kind of big-money businesses they typically run.
“The Vernon Chamber of Commerce voted 95-per-cent against the HST,” he said. “The B.C. Chamber of Commerce does not speak for the chambers of commerce in the small towns and communities in the province.”
He went on to call the tax the “most dangerous thing that has ever happened in this province,” and said the B.C. CoC has let down its membership by supporting it.
His partner in opposing the HST, Chris Delaney, said he has, “never seen a local Chamber of Commerce come forward in favour of the HST.”
Meanwhile, the Nelson CoC has, indeed, vocally supported the new tax, while the Castlegar CoC is taking a more mid-ground approach.
“The HST is supported by the majority of Chambers of Commerce in the province,” said Castlegar CoC executive director Pam Mcleod. “This is something that has been on the books for the past seven years within the B.C. CoC, and it has been successfully voted in by the members of the B.C. chamber for several years running.
“This is nothing new in the chamber world.”
She said that, while the Castlegar chamber did vote in favour of the tax at the B.C. CoC annual general meeting, the approval is not without caveat.
“This undoubtedly does not come without reservations,” she explained. “The Castlegar and District Chamber of Commerce recognizes the toll this may take on business sectors in our community. To address this, the Castlegar chamber has worked toward mitigation strategies to assist our members businesses.
“This is what we do; advocate and lobby on behalf of our membership,” she said, adding B.C. CoC vice-president Jon Garson , responsible for public policy development, was brought into Castlegar in October last year to start mitigation strategies with local chamber membership.
“And it doesn’t stop there,” she added. “We can go further and develop policy in favour of strategies that support those that will be effected.”
Don’t forget to vote in this week’s poll to register your opinion of the HST at http://castlegarsource.com/node/5247
