Time to Re-examine the GST.

Peter Goldring, MP for EdmontonCenter-East has put a members bill forward to try and eliminate the GST from home heating fuels. He considers natural gas a 'necessity of life' and as such, it should be exempt.

This raises an interesting question/dilemma:

Couldn't electricity be considered a necessity of life?
What about water(you do realize that you pay GST on your water bill every month, right?)?
What about clothing? Seems pretty essential and necessary to me, yet it isn't GST exempt either.
What about fuel at the pump? GST is charged ON TOP OF the federal tax. This means you are being gouged not once, but twice every time you fill up that jalopy.

Solution: We either need to scrap the GST altogether or the government needs to seriously reexamine the GST issue and decipher which products are essential, and which aren't. This, of course, is extremely subjective and is bound to create some internal friction among differing Canadian sectors.

Personally, I think the GST should be removed from ALL goods and services immediately. The effect of this would be felt by consumers across the board, and would certainly help to offset and mitigate our already high personal and corporate tax structure.
Also, administration and bureaucratic costs for simply collecting the GST account for 2-3 out of the 7 % that we are charged. This is important to remember because in actuality, the government is only collecting about 4-5 % tax instead of the 7% we have been led to believe is going in their pockets.

I'm glad that Goldring is leading the charge on this and I wish him success.

~Jeff