The provincial co-ordinator of the Transition House Association does not believe the tax holiday being introduced at both the federal and provincial levels will make any difference to people who are struggling.

Dan Meades’ immediate reaction to that exact question was “absolutely not.”

The GST and HST will be coming off of a list of items for a two month period on December 14th as a cost of living relief measure.

Meades says those taxes are “regressive,” meaning they are a flat tax that everyone pays no matter their income level.

He calls sales taxes a “blunt instrument” that is made even more blunt when government starts cherrypicking what it does and does not go on.

He says the list of items government is taking the taxes off of doesn’t make sense.

(He uses tins of pop as an example. Yes, he says there will still be the environmental tax and the sugar tax on it, but people are still being incentivized to buy it. Meades says that “makes no sense.” On the other hand, Meades does agree with taking the tax off things like diapers.)