Langley Chamber welcomes Eby’s pause on expanding PST to professional services

The Greater Langley Chamber of Commerce welcomed the province’s decision to pause plans to expand provincial sales tax charges to professional services after months of lobbying against the measure.

B.C. Premier David Eby announced the pause on Sept. 18 during a speech on the final day of the Union of B.C. Municipalities convention in Vancouver. The proposed expansion would have applied PST to services including accounting, engineering, security and non-residential real estate.

Chamber CEO Cory Redekop said the decision was right for B.C. businesses facing significant costs and economic uncertainty. He said the chamber had repeatedly warned that extending the tax to professional services would raise business costs and add pressure to prices across the economy.

Redekop said the business community appreciated that the government had listened, adding that the pause offered welcome breathing room. He said the chamber still believes the proposed expansion should ultimately be reconsidered altogether.

In the same speech, Eby said he had directed that future BC Ferries vessels be built in British Columbia and announced more support programs for B.C. companies affected by new U.S. tariffs. The speech was widely viewed as pre-election messaging, as Eby could call a snap election while the B.C. Conservatives are in disarray and the new Centre BC Party emerges in the Legislature.