The Kamloops Chamber is hoping to address a situation where the province is double dipping in taxing contractors.

President Joshua Knaak says the way the province has administered the provincial sales tax has caused real issues, particularly in the contractor industry.

“Let’s use Home Hardware for example. If Home Hardware is bringing in a bunch of two-by-fours, they will either turn around and sell those to contractors to build something, or in some cases they’ll be the ones building, say a garage. And at this point, there’s a guessing game that they have to make as to where that product will be used. Because in one of those cases, it’s PST exempt, and in another one of those cases PST has to be collected,” Knaak says.

“Whether it’s paid by them at their level or whether it’s paid by the end user, and where the government has actually come back and said ‘nope, it was collected or it was paid at the wrong level, you also have to pay it at this level as well.’ Which has resulted in double taxation which has been crippling. There’s hundreds of thousands of dollars right now that Kamloops businesses are out because of double taxation.”

A recommended policy from the Kamloops Chambers on how the province should administer PST will be brought to the B.C. Chamber AGM later this month.