Evidence of meeting #59 for Finance in the 41st Parliament, 1st Session. (The original version is on Parliament’s site, as are the minutes.) The winning word was change.
A recording is available from Parliament.
NDP
Peggy Nash NDP Parkdale—High Park, ON
Thank you very much to the witnesses for being here.
I'd like to go back to the beginning with respect to the health measures you described. To understand better the GST/HST exemption for pharmacist drug dispensing, why is the federal government moving to make this change?
Senior Legislative Chief, Sales Tax Division, GST Legislation, Tax Policy Branch, Department of Finance
Basically, there have been representations by the Canadian Pharmacists Association in that respect. It's to recognize the increased involvement of pharmacists in the health care sector.
NDP
Peggy Nash NDP Parkdale—High Park, ON
If I understand it correctly, then, this is an exemption on the dispensing fee?
Senior Legislative Chief, Sales Tax Division, GST Legislation, Tax Policy Branch, Department of Finance
Yes.
Could I correct what I just said?
Senior Legislative Chief, Sales Tax Division, GST Legislation, Tax Policy Branch, Department of Finance
For pharmacists, when they dispense a drug that is zero-rated, that service is zero-rated. In this case we're talking about when you have a consultation with the pharmacist, the fee they may charge for that. When you said dispensing services, it's not the fee for dispensing prescription drugs, because that was already non-taxable; it's when you have a consultation with the pharmacist.
NDP
Peggy Nash NDP Parkdale—High Park, ON
Okay. So this is when there's a consultation, almost like a medical consultation with a doctor or a dentist. It's in that sense.
What's the rationale for including other health professionals in the proposed expansion in eligibility for claiming the GST/ HST input tax credit for orders of medical-assisted devices?
Senior Legislative Chief, Sales Tax Division, GST Legislation, Tax Policy Branch, Department of Finance
Just to clarify, are you talking about the fact that registered nurses, occupational therapists, and physiotherapists can now issue an order?
Senior Legislative Chief, Sales Tax Division, GST Legislation, Tax Policy Branch, Department of Finance
It's to recognize the greater involvement of those health care practitioners in ordering those kinds of medical devices. In some cases, if the doctor issued it, you had to see the doctor and take the time at the doctor's to basically get the zero-rated treatment, while it would in the end be the physiotherapist or the registered nurse who would actually recommend what you should have to improve your health.
NDP
Peggy Nash NDP Parkdale—High Park, ON
Is this viewed as an efficiency measure for the health care system, so that you don't need to go to a doctor, for example? For dispensing, you could go to the pharmacist to get that kind of consultation, or you could see another health professional. Is that the rationale behind it, that provinces are moving to the system of making perhaps better use, if I can use that term, of other health professionals?
Senior Legislative Chief, Sales Tax Division, GST Legislation, Tax Policy Branch, Department of Finance
Yes. Essentially, we rely on provinces to say what health care professionals can do. It varies from province to province. There are provinces that allow a registered nurse or a physiotherapist to write an order for a medical device, and basically this amendment recognizes that evolution in the health care sector.
NDP
Peggy Nash NDP Parkdale—High Park, ON
I think it's a positive thing to make better use of the services of the diversity of professionals in the health care field.
Do you have a sense of the impact of these changes in health care measures, what the exemption will cost, if I can put it that way? What is the impact on taxes that would not be collected but that otherwise would have been collected?
Senior Legislative Chief, Sales Tax Division, GST Legislation, Tax Policy Branch, Department of Finance
Yes. This information is found in the budget document. Let me just find it.
It's on page 381 of the budget document. Essentially, the costing here has been done for all the health care measures that are included in this bill. The cost for 2012-13 would be $3 million; for 2013-14 it would be $3 million; for the next three years it would be $4 million a year, for a total over five years of $18 million.
NDP
Peggy Nash NDP Parkdale—High Park, ON
So $18 million would be the total cost of these health measures over five years.
Senior Legislative Chief, Sales Tax Division, GST Legislation, Tax Policy Branch, Department of Finance
Yes.
Conservative
Conservative
Cathy McLeod Conservative Kamloops—Thompson—Cariboo, BC
Thank you.
I first want to comment that the measures Ms. Nash was just asking about are very positive. We're talking about what it will cost, but being in the health care field, I know that a nurse practitioner could do something but then would have to send the patient to the doctor, so there would be that additional cost.
I suspect we're going to have provincial savings also in terms of better utilization of our physicians. That, of course, isn't my question, but because it's something near and dear to my heart, I was so glad to see it in this budget.
My question is a quick one. It's regarding B.C.'s decision to exit the HST. Just this week, British Columbia, which made this choice, announced their date to exit: April 2013.
Are we going to have any kind of gap in legislation? Will we “exit” them before they have the transition? Can you just briefly talk about how this is connected together?
Senior Legislative Chief, Sales Tax Division, GST Legislation, Tax Policy Branch, Department of Finance
The amendment I talked about involving B.C. generally applies after March 2013. April 1, 2013, is the date on which B.C. has decided to reinstate their provincial sales tax.
Conservative
Conservative
Liberal
John McKay Liberal Scarborough—Guildwood, ON
Thank you, Chair.
In effect, this exemption for health measures is treating pharmacists in the same manner as doctors are treated for HST purposes. Is that the point?
Senior Legislative Chief, Sales Tax Division, GST Legislation, Tax Policy Branch, Department of Finance
It's for the services that pharmacists are entitled to provide under provincial legislation.
Liberal
John McKay Liberal Scarborough—Guildwood, ON
Yes. What I don't understand is why the pharmacists would lobby for this, given that a lot of their other inputs are HST-related and that therefore, if they take the service out of it, there's no offset.
Can you explain to me the rationale behind the pharmacists', presumably acting in their own best interests, pursuing this?
