Sure, I can start with that.
We have mixed views, quite frankly, with respect to the HST. We have members on both sides of that equation. We have surveyed our members repeatedly in different provinces of Canada. We ultimately did support the HST in the three Atlantic provinces that harmonized taxes, but it was a bit of a different environment, in that the rates of taxation also came down significantly at that point in time.
In Ontario, and as it is proposed in British Columbia, the rates are staying the same, so there is no real consumer advantage on the surface of this decision. Clearly many businesses will benefit, and they will benefit significantly. The addition of input tax credits to the provincial portion of sales taxation is a huge advantage to many sectors of the economy, and we get that. But there are many of our members who are very linked to the consumer economy, and they are in the sectors that do not have a provincial portion extended to them right now. They are very much concerned about that.
We have put forward a few principles that we think are important for governments to consider in harmonizing sales taxes. One of them does seem to be clearly missing, and that is some form of overall rate reduction through that process. We think that in Ontario, for example, if there were even a point lower for consumers as a win from this, the acceptance of the new harmonized environment would be much, much greater. Consumer advantage would clearly be one piece we want to see.
One thing that is happening, which is good, is visibility. We are encouraged that this is still going to be a visible form of taxation. We've written to all the ministers of finance across the country outlining the kinds of things we want to see happen.
I know this isn't a complete answer to your question, but there is a real mixed bag of reaction among the small and medium-sized business communities.