A group representing some of the province’s biggest companies and richest business people has a message for New Brunswick taxpayers: you’re not paying enough tax.

To get deeper into your pocketbook, the New Brunswick Business Council is proposing that the provincial government hike the HST. That means you will be paying more for everything from food, to gas, to the shirt on your back.

The costs to the average New Brunswick taxpayer can be projected by looking over the border to Nova Scotia, where the HST was hiked in 2010, by two points, up to 15 per cent.

Since the HST hike, every man, woman and child pay around $518 more each year in HST.

If adopted in New Brunswick, the HST hike would be on top of other tax increases government already implemented, like a gasoline tax increase and user fees going up.

New Brunswick families are already having trouble keeping up with increasing costs. Since 2009, New Brunswick workers have seen costs on the things they need (food, energy, etc.) go up by about 6 per cent, while their wages have only gone up 5 per cent.

Now the Business Council claims your family needs to pay more because the government does not take enough money from taxpayers.  

But this is naive. The answer isn’t to tax more but to spend less.

Since 2007, total government spending has gone up by $1.7 billion or 27 per cent. This is an increase of about $2,300 a citizen. Does anyone really believe after all that extra money, the hospital waiting times are shorter, the education system is vastly improved and roads are smoother to drive on? The short answer… no.

If the taxes are raised, it will only delay the much needed work of Finance Minister Blaine Higgs to rein in the growth of government. The Business Council does not make one suggestion to address runaway government spending. Like spending on administration and growth in government. Since 2007, total spending on salaries of unionized government workers jumped by 23 per cent. The number of public servants collecting an annual salary of at least $100,000 has more than doubled. Not surprisingly, New Brunswick has one of the largest gaps between the salaries of government workers and those of the taxpayers who pay them.

If anyone really believes that politicians in Fredericton will remain motivated to cut spending after raising taxes, think again. Nova Scotia again serves as a good example of why it would not happen.

You would be hard pressed to find a tax that the Nova Scotia government has not raised in the last three years. Taxpayers there are shelling out more for income tax, HST, gas taxes and user fees.