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There have been heated debates in Alberta about the role of a sales tax in weaning the province off of unsustainable and volatile resource revenues.

Some Albertans see “no sales tax” as their birthright. They overlook the fact that they already have a sales tax — the GST, brought to you decades ago by a conservative federal government.

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A second twist of the knife: the revenues from the current sales tax go to Ottawa, instead of staying in Alberta. Ouch!

So, given that Alberta already has a sales tax, how about changing it, and making it work for Albertans? Instead of a GST, make it an HST — the feds can collect it (saving on the dreaded administrative costs) and send Alberta the proceeds. A five-per-cent Alberta-only portion could bring in $5 billion in revenues — about half of the provincial deficit.

But why talk about a sales tax when sales taxes hurt lower-income people? Yes, there are more progressive ways to raise revenues. All provinces have progressive income taxes, as does the federal government, and the Alberta income tax system definitely could be more progressive.