Small businesses reject hiking GST to fund cities
According to CFIB's quarterly Mandate Survey, 91 per cent of the 1,002 business owners surveyed responded "no" when asked: Should municipalities in Alberta be allowed to increase the GST rate by one per cent (i.e. to 6% from 5%) as a way to fund municipal infrastructure projects (e.g. museums, libraries, recreation centres)? Only 6 per cent said yes, while 3 per cent were undecided.
Small businesses reject hiking GST to fund cities
GST hike survey results - Calgary - Sept 2011
Over the past year, a group of Calgary business people calling themselves Transformation Calgary have repeatedly floated the idea of adding one point to the federal GST collected in the city with the revenue dedicated to specific municipal projects such as new libraries and art museums.
Clearly, however, there is little appetite among business owners to become even bigger tax collectors for a municipal government they often see as unaccountable and unresponsive to their needs. Similarly, consumers are feeling nickeled and dimed to death by governments. More sensible alternatives to adding more taxes must be explored, such as prioritizing the billions in property taxes already being generated by municipal governments across the province and delivering greater accountability for the money currently being spent.
The survey of 1,002 CFIB members in Alberta was conducted between June 15 and August 12, 2011 and is considered accurate plus or minus 2.85 points 19 times out of 20.
