News Release Archive
NEWS RELEASE (CNS688) -->> FINANCE--REPEAT-ORIGINAL RELEASED SUNDAY, OCT. 20 FINANCE--REPEAT-ORIGINAL RELEASED SUNDAY, OCT. 20 ----------------------------------------------------------------- The Department of Finance has announced that details of the new Harmonized Sales Tax will be released Wednesday, Oct. 23. Finance Minister Bill Gillis, said, "The agreement to go ahead with harmonization was approved by the provincial cabinet last week. The final signing of the documents was complete Friday afternoon." "Officials with the federal Department of Finance, Revenue Canada, the New Brunswick Department of Finance, the Newfoundland Department of Finance and the Nova Scotia Department of Finance are now coordinating efforts and preparing the documents for release to the public," Dr. Gillis said. "As planned all along, the legal agreement between the provinces and the federal government will be released at the same time as the technical paper outlining the details of the new system," he said. "Some of the measures to be announced will have an immediate effect on business decisions because of changes by the federal government. Under those circumstances, the federal government wants to make sure that everyone, including the Parliament of Canada receives the information at the same time." He said it will take another 48 hours to co-ordinate the compilation of the large number of documents and then have them fully translated, printed, and distributed. To accommodate these needs the official release date has been set for Wednesday following a statement in the House of Commons. EDITOR'S NOTE: Details of a technical briefing for media will be released later. -30- Contact: Bruce Cameron 902-424-8787 trp Oct. 21, 1996 - 9:45 a.m.