The federal government’s GST holiday is coming to an end this Sunday. It was billed as a two-month tax break on groceries and holiday essentials to ease cost-of-living pressures, but as Sohrab Sandhu reports, some say the tax break was too short lived to provide any meaningful benefit to consumers and businesses.
Vancouver resident Tara Garofano says she made a dinner reservation on Valentine’s Day — not for romance, but to take advantage of the final hours of the federal government’s temporary Goods and Services Tax (GST) holiday.
“It was really nice to save an extra bit of money,” she told CBC News.
The two-month GST/Harmonized Sales Tax (HST) exemption, which began on Dec. 14, was promoted as a way to ease cost-of-living pressures by eliminating the tax on some essential goods and holiday items, including groceries, restaurant meals, books, games, children’s toys, and clothing.
“It would be nice if …