MOLLY MAID asking employees and customers to sign 'Fight HST' petition

OAKVILLE, ON, April 28 /CNW/ - MOLLY MAID, the household brand and largest Canadian-based residential cleaning company in the world, is joining the fight against Harmonized Sales Tax (HST) in British Columbia. The company is encouraging its franchisees, employees and customers across British Columbia to support the petition organized by former premier Bill Vander Zalm that is seeking the tax's repeal.

"The tax will literally decimate the residential cleaning services industry by driving a huge percentage of the business underground where taxes are not charged and where incomes taxes are generally not paid. The industry is set to lose over 10,000 taxpaying jobs due to HST. Some changes need to be made that are win-win-win for the government, for consumers and for the residential cleaning services industry", said MOLLY MAID Chairman and CEO Jim MacKenzie. While the company agrees HST will increase the overall competitiveness of most industries and provincial economies through greater tax efficiencies and lower tax collection costs, HST will have a significant unintended consequence that has not been addressed by government.

The introduction of HST is a national issue with provincial ramifications as much of the revenue impacts - positive or negative - will be felt by provincial governments. Seeking to save its industry, MOLLY MAID supports the recent proposal made by leading accounting firm PricewaterhouseCoopers to Federal Finance Minister Flaherty that would reduce the "price pressure on working women to have to resort to the underground economy to remain in the professional workforce."

"The underground industry already accounts for a staggering $3 billion in annual revenue with over 170,000 'workers'. In other provinces with HST, we have seen the tax force hard-working women into the dishonest underground economy," said MOLLY MAID Chairman and CEO Jim MacKenzie. In an attempt to protect the jobs of its hard-working employees in British Columbia, MOLLY MAID is encouraging its franchisees, employees and customers to sign the petition to introduce the HST Extinguishment Act.

For more information, please visit www.hstopportunity.ca.

About MOLLY MAID

MOLLY MAID is the largest Canadian-based residential cleaning company in the world with global sales of approximately $250 million (Cdn). Vancouver-based Adrienne Stringer, a former nurse, and her husband Chris founded the company 30 years ago. Today, MOLLY MAID operates in seven countries on three continents including the United States, United Kingdom, Japan and Portugal.

For further information: Media contact: Ron Barry, [phone] x249, [email protected]