Ontario Premier Dalton McGuinty talks during a press conference regarding the recent changes to the OLG corporation at Queen's Park, Toronto.Fernando Morales/The Globe and Mail
Premier Dalton McGuinty says his government is talking to the mutual fund industry about a possible exemption to the harmonized sales tax.
He says there's no agreement right now, but the Ministry of Finance is in discussions with mutual fund companies and other groups to make sure his government "gets it right" on tax harmonization.
Mr. McGuinty wouldn't say whether he was sympathetic to the industry's complaints about merging the 8 per cent Ontario sales tax with the federal GST, which would hike the cost of many items currently exempt from the provincial levy.
His comments appear to put him at odds with provincial Finance Minister Dwight Duncan, who had reportedly taken a hard line against the mutual fund industry's complaints about the HST.
Ontario NDP Leader Andrea Horwath says taxpayers should be outraged that the governing Liberals are bowing to big business instead of trying to find more exemptions to ordinary families for everyday items like home heating oil.
Conservative Peter Shurman says there are a lot of groups that have a case against the HST and the tax needs to be stopped now before it's implemented next July.