At a Glance / Aperçu

CMA to consult members on GST

Canadian Medical Association Journal 1996; 155: 967

Nothing raises the hackles of Canadian physicians like the goods and services tax, and General Council has decided unanimously that the CMA should discuss with members ways of passing on costs related to the reviled 7% tax. Physicians remain the only professionals who have to absorb the entire cost of the GST as it relates to their practices, and Dr. Dan MacCarthy of Vancouver says something has to be done. "We've paid over a quarter billion dollars since it was introduced," said MacCarthy, "and physicians in the Maritimes are going to face an even worse situation because of harmonization of the GST and provincial sales taxes." The CMA has estimated that the tax costs physicians $56 to $57 million annually.

In his report to General Council, board chair Dr. Colin McMillan noted that the CMA has continued to lobby the federal government about the "discriminatory situation" physicians face over the GST. "A harmonized system will increase the discrimination," he warned.

| CMAJ October 1, 1996 (vol 155, no 7) |