Dear Editor:
Re: Liberals don't support B.C. film, Letters, Burnaby NOW, March 22.
In almost every edition of the Burnaby NOW lately I've seen one group or another lamenting how the B.C. Liberal government doesn't care about them, that previous funding for them has been reduced or removed.
Well folks, the government did do something in 2009 to try and make B.C. competitive with the rest of Canada, to obtain the money necessary to offer tax breaks to the film industry, support health, education, job creation by the only tool it had at the time of a world economic collapse, by introducing the harmonized sales tax.
Instead the people of B.C. listened to individuals who didn't appreciate the taxpayers' best interests and by a slim margin voted to go back to the economically repressive provincial sales tax/goods and services tax.
So while Ontario and Quebec were getting billions of dollars from the federal government infused into their economy, B.C. was trying to figure out how to pay back hundreds of millions of dollars to the feds.
While all the stories are sad to hear you will get no sympathy from me. We had the opportunity to be part of the rest of Canada, and the majority of countries around the world, by adopting a simple and progressive tax system.
Instead 55 per cent of the people decided to reject it to save a few dollars on dining out, hair cuts and gym memberships.
There is an old and true saying, "Be careful what you wish for, you just may get it."
David Field, Burnaby small business owner
