Hike HST on luxury items: N.B. business group

The Progressive Conservative government should consider increasing the Harmonized Sales Tax on luxury items as it tries to curtail its deficit, according to a Moncton business leader.

John Thompson, the chief executive officer of Enterprise Greater Moncton, attended Finance Minister Blaine Higgs's pre-budget meeting in Moncton on Tuesday.

Thompson said the provincial government should be taking another look at the HST.

He said an increase to the HST could be applied to certain luxury items, such as higher end vehicles and homes.

"If you own an automobile that's more than $25,000, then maybe they should be paying more taxes," Thompson said.

"Let's look at the average price of a home in New Brunswick, if the average price is $150,000 and you're buying a $250,000 home, then let's look at the extra [$100,000] and can we treat that differently."

Thompson said keeping personal and corporate income taxes low is important.

The business official said he feels business in the greater Moncton area has been doing its part by creating more than 8,000 jobs in the past five years.

"We've got a great corporate tax system right now, personal income taxes aren't too high. We're attracting lots of people into our region, we are attracting companies into the region and the existing companies that are in the region are expanding," Thompson said.

"So all that has contributed to the overall success in the region."

As for spending cuts, Thompson said the provincial government should look at trimming individual programs rather than reducing spending across the board.

Higgs is taking his pre-budget consultation meetings to St. Stephen on Wednesday and Fredericton on Thursday.

The New Brunswick government is forecasting an $820-million deficit for 2010-11 and Higgs has warned the deficit could top $1-billion if urgent action isn't taken.

Higgs announced on Friday the government was trimming almost $43 million from the budget.