To the Editor:

There are so many things about the harmonized sales tax (HST) that should enrage every low- to middle-income earner in British Columbia. I am just going to mention a couple.

The HST becomes a property of the federal government. Harper's Conservatives want this money, and it comes on the back of low- and middle-income people. Taxes are supposed to provide services to the people, and they are necessary. But they should be just to everyone.

Alex Atamanenko, the NDP member of Parliament for B.C. Southern Interior told me that the Harper conservatives plan to cut corporate income taxes from 22.12 per cent in 2006 to 15 per cent in 2012 (right now, in 2010, it is at 18 per cent), leaving Canada with the lowest corporate tax rates in the G8. By doing so, the Harper Conservatives have also deprived the Treasury of billions of dollars that could have been invested in Canadians, like lifting seniors and children out of poverty. Last year, with the corporate rate at 19 per cent and most Canadians trying to cope with a serious recession, Canada's Big Five banks had profits totaling $15.9 billion.

Why taxing someone's bike, real estate fee and funeral expense are needed to cover the services and debt is beyond me. Why do we not get the breaks? It is very sad and cruel.

Next example: If your children are not tiny, as of July 1, you will be prejudiced against and be taxed. This is so unjust, and every parent and grandparent of children that are not tiny (even if they are tiny, your next generation might not be) should rebel!

For decades, way before I was born, B.C. has not charged provincial sales tax when larger or adult-sized clothing and footwear is purchased for children under age 15. As of July 1, no longer. If your children, no matter if they are seven or eight years old, cannot fit into children's sized clothing and footwear, you pay the tax for the adult wear. And I have had children in that category; it is already more expensive buying adult clothing and footwear, but now the HST will be tagged on. And maybe I am reading this incorrectly, but it looks like the governments are defending this — and getting upset with people that bring it to our attention. But it is another example, and there are many, of trying to keep families in poverty.

Rhonda Barter

West Creston