Quebec, Ottawa to sign HST deal Friday
QUEBEC — Prime Minister Stephen Harper will be in Quebec City Friday to officially sign a long awaited agreement with Quebec on the HST.
The province will receive $2.2 billion in compensation for harmonizing in 1992 its provincial sales tax with the federal sales tax. Under the deal signed nearly two decades ago, Quebec has been collecting both its own sales tax and the federal GST, remitting Ottawa's share to the federal government.
The federal government promised during the spring election campaign to strike a final agreement with Quebec by Sept. 15, but the deal will finally be penned Friday by Harper and Quebec Premier Jean Charest.
"We have managed to settle this long standing dispute," a source told Postmedia News. "This is a major announcement."
The two politicians are set to meet for more than an hour before making the formal announcement at 1 p.m. Friday at the National Assembly.
Every province that has harmonized its sales tax received lump sums for doing so: from $4.3 billion in Ontario to $364 million in New Brunswick.
However, those provinces and others handed control of their sales tax programs to the federal government.
Quebec will maintain control of the federal sales tax as well as its own provincial sales tax.
