YOUR PERSPECTIVE: Government adds new taxes during affordability crisis

Across the province, millions of people continue to struggle with a deepening affordability crisis. British Columbians are dealing with a rising cost of living that has resulted in the highest gas prices in North America, the highest rents in the country, and housing prices beyond a level ever seen before. Here in the Fraser Valley, we have seen this firsthand over the last few years, with some of the largest increases in housing prices seen anywhere in B.C.

We know that these rising prices are having a real and serious impact on people. A recent survey has found that nearly half of British Columbians are less than $200 away from insolvency at the end of each month. Half of them say that it is becoming harder to feed themselves and their family and that transportation has become less affordable. Another survey found that there has been a 31 per cent increase in food bank usage since 2019, with 19.2 per cent of British Columbians reporting they went hungry because they couldn’t afford food.

It’s on the backdrop of this reality that the government has added new taxes — taxes that they know will impact lower and middle-income British Columbians.

This summer, the government’s new tax on online marketplaces came into effect. At a time when people are paying more for daily necessities than ever before, they will now have to pay extra for some goods purchased online. The new rules make online marketplace facilitators liable to collect PST on sales made by marketplace sellers through online sales platforms. This additional tax was buried in legislation and is completely unprecedented, as nothing like this exists anywhere else in North America.