“The HST will have a devastating impact on most tourism-related products and services.”
That’s what British Columbia’s Council of Tourism Associations (COTA) predicted two years ago.
But, in a telling example of how the industry lobby’s position on the harmonized sales tax (HST) has since shifted, one of the council’s most prominent members is now helping bankroll the fight to keep the HST.
In an interview, Tourism Vancouver chairman James Terry confirmed his association’s board of directors voted “within the last month” to join the Smart Tax Alliance.
The alliance was recently designated as the official “No” side in the current referendum on whether to return to a provincial sales tax (PST).
Terry said most of his members either feel “neutral” toward HST or are in favour of it.
He explained most of the negative reaction to harmonization was based on how tourism businesses thought they’d be affected by the tax – not how they were actually affected by it. Indeed, according to a confidential briefing document prepared by the tourism associations’ council, “anecdotal feedback from our members suggests that the negative impacts of HST on the broader tourism industry are not as bad as initially forecast.”
As such, “the prevalent view within COTA is that the HST, with a few strategic mitigation allowances for our industry, is better than going back to the PST.”
Terry confirmed Tourism Vancouver’s decision to join the Smart Tax Alliance means his association is chipping in money toward the pro-HST campaign. But he declined to say how much money was involved.
End in sight for B.C. maritime museum rent row
The Maritime Museum of British Columbia hasn’t been paying any rent to its provincial government landlord for the past five years, Public Eye has learned. But there are conflicting explanations as to why those cheques haven’t been coming in.
A government spokesman has said the museum simply wasn’t in a financial position to do so. But the museum’s executive director, Martyn Clark, explained the non-profit has been in a rental dispute with the province.
The museum has occupied the former Supreme Court building in Victoria’s Bastion Square for 46 years. But, speaking with Public Eye, Clark said it “disputed the amount of money (the government) wanted for the place” with a rental agreement having not being in place since 2006.
“Most landlords want to get as much money as they can and most tenants want to get away with paying nothing,” Clark explained, putting the museum and the government at loggerheads.
But, according to the executive director, the museum “wanted to clear that up,” so it sat down with the government to do so.
As a result, a new rental agreement has been hammered out, with the government forgiving whatever money the museum might have owed taxpayers.
Clark said he wasn’t sure how much money was owed.
“I heard we had rental accruing of a couple hundred thou’. Then somebody said, ‘Oh, it’s millions.’ So I said, ‘Whatever it is, it exists no more.’”
Under the new rental agreement – which started in this fiscal year – the museum will pay the government an amount that’s “based on revenue.”
For its part, a government spokesman has said the museum didn’t owe taxpayers any unpaid rent because there was no rental agreement in place. But the government has subsidized the museum since 2006 by spending $1.05 million on building maintenance and operating costs.
As for why it took so long to reach a new rental agreement, the spokesman said both parties wanted time to come up with a deal that works for everyone and that the museum “could honour given [its] financial position.”
Sean Holman ([email protected]) is editor of the online provincial political news journal Public Eye (www.publiceyeonline.com).