Canadian Booksellers Association Continues Push to Remove GST on Books

Following the one percent GST cut, Canadian Booksellers Association (CBA) praises the Conservative government for lowering taxes on the reading material they sell; however, CBA wants to take this opportunity to remind politicians that the GST should be eliminated completely from books.

CBA Executive Director, Susan Dayus, says that recent studies have shown the greatest barrier to book purchases is price. If fewer books are purchased, that means lower literacy levels and less civil discourse which in the end hurts our country's innovation and productivity, says Dayus. By completely eliminating the GST on books, we will undoubtedly improve literacy.

CBA would like to see the government commit to removing the GST from books, returning books to the list of non-taxable items, as they were when the GST was first introduced. CBA supports the Private Member's Bill, recently introduced by Member of Parliament Alexa McDonough, calling for complete removal of GST on books.

"This is a first step," says Dayus, "but we still have six percent more to go in order to remove tax on reading to really make a difference in our literacy levels." An impressive coalition of national associations with an interest in literacy, reading and education are all in agreement that the GST should be removed from books.

In addition to Canadian Booksellers Association, the coalition includes: Association of Canadian Publishers (ACP); Association of English Language Publishers in Quebec (AELAQ); Association des libraries du Quebec (ALQ); Book and Periodical Council (BPC); Campus Stores Canada (CSC); Canadian Association of Research Libraries (CARL); The Canadian Children's Book Centre (CCBC); Canadian Library Association (CLA); Canadian Publishers Council (CPC); Christian Booksellers Association Canada (CBA- Canada); Crime Writers of Canada (CWC); Editors' Association of Canada (EAC); The League of Canadian Poets (LCP); The Writers' Union of Canada (TWUC); and York University Mature Students Organization.

Canadian Booksellers Association(CBA) is the national trade association representing Canadian booksellers from coast to coast, including independents, campus, specialty, chain, superstores, used and rare booksellers, in urban and rural communities.

For more information, visit the CBA website: www.cbabook.org