TORONTO — Consumers might not like the new Harmonized Sales Tax (HST), but it’s good for trucking; it’s good for competitiveness and it’s good tax policy.

Not only that, but it will be easier on Ontario’s bookkeepers and auditors.

Finally, the old tax system — the one that breathes its final breath this week — put Ontario truckers at a huge tax disadvantage.

David Bradley, the President of the Ontario Trucking Association (OTA) could go on and on about how happy he is that the HST is finally coming to Ontario.

And that’s exactly what he did at a press conference at Queen’s Park Tuesday.

For the event, Bradley joined a pro-HST group called the Smart Tax Alliance, which includes representatives from the Ontario and Canadian Chambers of Commerce, the Canadian Council of Chief Executives, the Canadian Manufacturers and Exporters of Ontario, and several other groups.

(The HST takes affect in Ontario and British Columbia Canada Day. Quebec and all three Maritime provinces have already implemented the HST.)

“For too long,” Bradley said, “Ontario trucking companies have had to compete with carriers from jurisdictions that either already have harmonized sales taxes or those that exempt trucking equipment from sales tax, such as Michigan, or Alberta which has no sales tax at all.

Bradley says a study conducted for the OTA by the Rotman School of Business estimated that in terms of the marginal effective tax rate on capital, Ontario-based trucking firms were at a staggering 31 percent tax disadvantage compared to trucking fleets based in Michigan, Ohio and New York. "A significant contributor to that was the PST system," he says.

The HST, Bradley said, replaces what he termed “outdated and non-uniformly applied taxes on business inputs [that] distort marketplaces and investment decisions by the people and the companies who create jobs.”

“Ontario,” he said, “is one of the largest and most attractive freight markets in North America. In a deregulated, free market, freight that moves into, out of and within Ontario doesn’t have to be transported by trucking companies from Ontario.

Ontario’s situation, Bradley said, is complicated by yet a third annoyance, the multi-jurisdictional vehicle tax (MJVT).

“Moreover,” he said, “Ontario trucking companies have been in the unenviable situation of being the only industry in the province to have to administer three input tax systems: the PST, the GST and the MJVT, which morphed out of the PST back in the 1990’s.

“Not only was this an enormous administrative burden for trucking companies but it was no doubt extremely difficult for the Ministry of Revenue to administer and audit.”

“Few Ontario economy industries have borne such a burden in terms of the taxation of business inputs as trucking has. Even our maintenance and repair labor costs were subject to the PST.

“In trucking we still pay our fair share of taxes even on business inputs. There are still excise taxes on diesel fuel, various payroll taxes, and fees for licences and permits.