An update:

I believe my post above was the result of my own misunderstanding. I am updating here in case anyone else runs into a similar confusion.

In Canada, sales taxes on purchases, including fixed assets, are captured in Quickbooks as ITC (Input Tax Credit) line items. The ITCs are reclaimed back in the quarterly or annual sales tax returns. So those amounts are technically not part of the acquisition cost of the fixed asset since the tax comes back into the company. The transactions are being recorded correctly; I just did not interpret them in the right way. Sometimes over-zealous googling can lead down a rabbit hole. All good here.