Search This Blog

Friday, June 18, 2010

Canada Post and HST

The HST is being applied to a new range of services, all of which are itemized on the BC and Ontario government websites. Newspapers copy these lists and present them to the public (e.g., here's what's going up in price, here's other changes, etc.).
 
BUT -- neither BC nor Ontario sites, nor the Canada Post site, nor the papers and magazines mention at all the fact that Canada Post rates will now be HST and going up 8% (the old PST) in Ontario.
 
To me, this is a huge chunk of change for Ontarians. We're already at 54 cents plus GST. Another 8% (a nickel? six cents?) will just drive more people away from the post office.
 
But it is NOT the money gained by Canada Post that makes me to write this note; it is the lack of information that this particular change is coming.
 
Not a single media outlet has commented on the post office and HST -- except the one in Medicine Hat last month (May 13) , and even that was just obliquely.
 
 
Is there a coverup of HST data that the public should know about?
 

2 comments:

Rachael, Ministry of Revenue said...

It’s true, postage will increase to 13%. If you’d like to see that information online, it’s available at the following URL: http://www.canadapost.ca/cpo/mc/personal/productsservices/collectionofsalestax.jsf. If you’d like a general list of the buckets that are and aren’t changing, you can read about it here: http://www.rev.gov.on.ca/en/taxchange/pdf/taxable.pdf or download the application here: http://www.rev.gov.on.ca/hstmobile/. The price of about 83% of items will not change, but 17% will, such as postage rates.

Rachael

Dean Tudor said...

Rachael, thanks -- but please note that the Canada Post website did not change until the last week of June, after my original posting. This was the FIRST official notice that there would be a change. The Ontario and BC government websites NEVER EVER (and they still don't) listed Canada Post rates as increasing. Significantly (and my point) no newspaper in Canada, except one (and even that was oblique) ever mentioned that Canada Post rates would increase (8% in Ontario). I still ask: was there a cover-up to prevent the masses from rioting?

Also: why did nobody mention that the 5 cent price for plastic bags would now be 6 cents because of rounding?

Shamey, shamey.