I'll preface it by saying I'm certainly no expert on taxation. Notionally, in New Brunswick, for example, or in the whole of Atlantic Canada, when they went to the HST, it gave an advantage on the input price, so while you're paying for retail sales tax as an input into your production processes, you harmonize the taxes around a value-added tax, and it gives you some advantage on the price or the cost of your goods going in, such that when it comes out at the other end you're more advantaged in the output price that you're able to offer to the market.
On November 22nd, 2006. See this statement in context.