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Many public institutions, non-profits and businesses will be especially squeezed in that year of double taxation. But without it, the NDP’s three-year balanced budget plan would be in serious jeopardy.

Also sidestepped by James are the complaints from businesses and non-profits that were not paying premiums for their employees but will now be subject to the payroll tax.

Another commonplace from the minister is that fewer than 15 per cent of businesses in B.C. will pay the tax. This is based on Stats Canada data showing that about 50,000 of 400,000 B.C. businesses would have a sizable enough payroll to be captured by the tax.

But I gather the 400,000 figure includes a lot of one-person incorporations for tax purposes. The actual number of employers affected would be larger than 15 per cent.

In defence of the added tax bite for businesses, James has noted that the government reduced the small business tax by half a point and eliminated the provincial sales tax on electricity.

To put that claim in perspective, the relief totals $160 million in a full year while the payroll tax will bring in more than 10 times as much.

Beset by days of questioning from the B.C. Liberals on the impact of the tax, James has also fired back in partisan exasperation.

“I’d like to know where every one of those members was on the other side when the MSP premiums were doubled in this province,” she challenged during question period Wednesday. “When families, when individuals, not-for-profits and other organizations were struggling, there was absolute silence from the other side about any of those issues.”