Will You Settle Into The “New Normal” of HST?

There were a few nervous giggles around Ontario last week when the provincial government there announced that prepared food under $4, coffee and newspapers would be exempt from the incoming Harmonized Sales Tax that will be forced upon people beginning July 1.

Mighty big of them, huh?

That was the general reaction, with some saying we’d better get used to those Egg McMuffins and that cup of Timmie’s coffee as staples in your diet because a good chunk of your income will be going to other necessities such as home heating or gasoline, thanks to the HST.

Of course, this grand gesture was all posturing on the part of the provincial government which earlier this week, began ramming the HST, which also takes effect in British Columbia next year, through the legislature at a time when talk of the HST coming to Manitoba was heating up.

The timing of the exemption announcement last week is sound strategy in the sense that the provincial government in Ontario was prepping the public for the final blow, kind of like the dentist freezing you up for a root canal. It’s still painful, just less painful.

It may not have worked with the paltry and insulting exemption announced last week and whatever bone other provinces throw to disgruntled citizens. Isn’t it funny how governments mention what sacrifices they’re making with such announcements, even when the HST hasn’t taken effect?

Like that dentist performing the root canal, the initial pain is the most noticeable, but then you get over it. After the HST is passed, governments are hoping that, after the initial pain of implementing the HST, we forget all about it. In other words, it becomes the new normal.

Think about the reaction to the GST when it was first implemented and, despite our initial protests, we meekly go about paying it these days without a whimper. It has been lowered from seven to five per cent, but does that make a difference anymore with having to pay an extra seven or eight per cent with the HST?

Think about the screaming we did when gasoline rocketed to well over $1 a litre a couple of years ago, but how we’re relatively quiet now if it stays around that buck a litre mark. Well, tack on another seven or eight cents per, depending on where you reside in Canada with the arrival of the HST.

Of course, gas is part of the operation costs at golf courses around Canada and its price is also a big part of day-to-day living for customers.

When July arrives, golf course operators will quite likely hear from their customers about the extra eight per cent, even if it isn’t going back to the facility, but the arrival of the HST could be less obvious than complaining customers.

In an industry in which affordability is already an issue, the decision to play less golf could be more of a subconscious one for consumers, not only because of the extra cash required to play, but also the extra money they need to fork over for the wider variety of goods outside of golf that will be subject to the HST.

The pie is shrinking and there isn’t as much for everybody.

That holds especially true for the unemployed. One of the benefits of the HST, according to the spin doctors, is that it will create jobs, but nobody ever talks much about the quality of jobs that will appear.

If they are low-paying or part-time positions, you wonder if they are even worth taking when most of your income is going right back to various levels of government.

That’s the new normal that they’re prepping you for, so enjoy that HST exempt coffee and donut. Just like high gas prices, you’ll get used to it. In this case, it would be better for us to think of the HST as a root canal per day instead of our daily stop at Timmie’s.

Remembering the pain helps eliminate complacency on an issue that affects both the industry and its customers.

CGSA’S UPCOMING SEMINARS/WEBINARS: The Canadian Golf Superintendents Association has posted a list of upcoming fall and winter seminars and webinars in the Coming Events section of the GNN Forum.