The only thing to rival the nastiness in the final days of the federal election campaign was the stench of hypocrisy billowing from the British Columbia legislature. Recently, retail giant Costco resorted to the courts to protect its customers from an overly zealous revenue ministry. The ministry demanded Costco hand over a list of all its BC resident customers who purchased goods in its Alberta stores on the assumption that these apparently sophisticated and well connected shoppers were evading BC's sales tax.

Now for the hypocrisy. Within days of the Costco tax evasion story, the finance ministry announces that it will continue to hand out millions of tax dollars to Hollywood film executives in the form of "tax credits." Of course, it's not just the film industry, the Campbell government has handed out millions to the oil and gas, biotechnology, mining and science and research sectors. Taxpayers along the Alberta-BC border must be outraged and rightly so.

The government estimates that 97 per cent of shoppers do pay their sales tax and estimates loss in sales tax revenue from BC residents shopping in Alberta at $12 million---a chemical fraction of the massive industry handouts. Adding further insult to injury, the revenue ministry is currently conducting a review of the sales tax and its myriad of exemptions and credits. There are special provisions for catering, logging, promotional goods, surgical implants, pet shops and kennels as well as materials and equipment used to conserve energy- but for residents that shop in Alberta, watch out!

Clearly there has to be bigger priorities than targeting consumers along the BC-Alberta border. To be clear, the issue isn't just the sales tax, but location. For many, the big box stores are in Alberta. And who is to say, that these goods aren't consumed in Alberta Some British Columbians could have purchased and consumed goods while on vacation in Alberta. Who's to say Trying to answer such questions would certainly tie up a lot resources and bureaucrats.

This government, and its finance and revenue ministries have failed to recognize that economic competitiveness requires broad-based tax relief measures. Pan-economic competition cannot be achieved if the government is constantly cherry-picking business winners and losers through hand-outs and select tax concessions. Fundamentally, the Costco issue is about tax competitiveness not tax evasion and the fact that this government hasn't realized this reveals a significant departure from its early days in office.

The revenue minister is currently reviewing the "Costco issue" and plans to make an announcement shortly. He should go back and take a look at his party's 2001 New Era promise to end corporate welfare, scrap all the special credits, exemptions and lower the rate.

The government needs to re-focus its efforts on remaining competitive instead of picking on taxpayers seeking convenience and trying to make the most of their after tax dollars! This would not end cross-border shopping and nor should it, much of our economic health depends on the free flow of goods into and out of the province. But it would go some distance to stem it and make BC a truly more competitive economy.