So my Dad is a loveable nerd for all things military, gun-related and, a new-found passion, leather crafts, which he has somehow combined into his love of guns, but that’s for another day. 

Quality time spent with Dad is often discussing one of these subjects, or being dragged to any one of these stores for hours. 

It was on one of these shopping trips over the Christmas holidays that we found two of the things we’re each passionate about – him his leather work, mine my journalism career – collide. We stopped at a small leather crafts store in Calgary, and I browsed the saddlery section (I also love horses, as evident in previous Last Words, so this store wasn’t so bad after spending over an hour at a military surplus store looking for nicknacks) while Dad picked out dyes, a pair of leather scissors (Dad gets as excited about scissors as I get about a new camera gadget) and discussed with the clerk about the thickness of the leather hide he had purchased a few weeks ago. 

Finally it was time to check out, and Dad was asked for his address to sign up for their newsletter that included news about sales (50 cents off leather stamps?! Dad just couldn’t resist). He gave out his Kimberley, B.C. address, and that’s when the clerk stopped. 

“Oh, I have to charge you the HST,” the lady said. 

My Dad has this funny look he gets when he is confused and thinking – he squints one eye a bit and tilts his head – which he displayed when he asked “What?”

The woman explained that she had to charge the HST to B.C. customers because they have a store in Vancouver. 

My Dad, still confused pointed to me and asked if I, as an Alberta resident, could purchase his things and later give them to him as a gift. The woman had no objection to that idea, so I became the proud new owner of a pair of leather scissors. 

As we returned to the car, we realized how angry we were about the idea of being charged HST in a province that doesn’t have one – especially a province that doesn’t even have a PST to harmonize with the GST. We wondered whether this was legal or not, and I vowed to find out. 

A quick call to a friendly source at B.C’s Ministry of Finance (who asked that she be referred to as a source, not by her name. I was starting to feel like Carl Bernstein!) proved that what this store was doing was in fact wrong.

“We have no idea why they would be [charging HST],” said my source at the ministry. 

The two of us pondered why the store would even want to charge it, and what my source suggested is that the store may be coding their purchases through the Vancouver store, but they have no obligation to ensure customers are paying the HST. The responsibility lies with the B.C. consumer to claim purchases that were bought out-of-province to be used within B.C., much like when you claim purchases at the Canada/U.S. border. 

My source confirmed that there is nothing within the HST laws that state a B.C. resident has to pay HST when shopping out of province (unless you’re in a province that charges the HST, obviously). 

“The store doesn’t collect it on our behalf,” said my source. 

As a B.C. authority, the B.C. Ministry of Finance has no jurisdiction to intervene with this store’s operations, but my source suggested the clerk may just be misinformed about the HST. 

My source also cleared up another thing for me. If a B.C. resident orders something from an Alberta store over the internet, they are not required to charge HST. The source then suggested I contact the Canada Revenue Agency (CRA).

Joanne de Waal, media spokesperson for the CRA out of Calgary was surprised to hear of my claim. 

“Well that’s a new one,” she said. 

De Waal says they have received many calls from consumers, but mostly surrounding the shipping of goods to HST provinces. Canada Post, for example, has to charge HST to customers from say, Alberta, sending a product to New Brunswick where HST is charged, because the destination defines what taxes are charged. 

After browsing a lengthy government document (88 pages!) on the HST provided to me by de Waal, I came up with nothing to suggest an Alberta business would ever have to charge a B.C. customer the extra tax within the province. I also learned where the HST is the highest – Nova Scotia at a whopping 15 per cent, over B.C.’s 13 per cent. This all made me realize how lucky I am that I do in fact call Alberta my home these days. 

Attempts to contact the store’s head office in the U.S. were unsuccessful, but I feel satisfied that if this situation comes up again at any other store, I can happily point them in the right direction.

If the clerk’s idea were to be correct, in theory, any company that has stores in both HST and non-HST provinces would have to charge that tax to HST province residents. Think about it – getting gas, buying groceries, etc. All these businesses would have to start asking for addresses. Customer service would come to a grinding halt as staff scurry to deal with the influx of sky-rocketing customer complaints.

Thankfully, this is not reality. What I’ve learned from all of this is to question strange charges you receive, and to not be afraid to look into it – also to bring a book when Dad asks me to go shopping again.   

DISCLAIMER: The Last Word is an opinion column, it is meant to provoke thought and debate. As such, any opinions written here are the writers own and do not reflect the viewpoint of any other Fitzhugh staff member or the directors of the Jasper Media Group Inc.