September 1, 2010
B.C. government bureaucrats were engaged in discussions about the HST with their federal counterparts — and briefing the provincial finance minister — well before the May 2009 provincial election, documents show.
The information, which appears to contradict claims by the Liberal government that the harmonized sales tax was not on their radar before the election, was revealed in government emails and briefing notes obtained by CBC News and other media outlets through a Freedom of Information request this week.
The documents also reveal the government had expert advice that the new tax might hurt the province’s unemployment and economic growth for up to five years before the benefits were realized.
The documents also appear to support, however, B.C. Finance Minister Colin Hansen’s assertions that the Liberal government did not actually decide to bring in the new tax until bureaucrats briefed him on the province’s financial future after the May 2009 election.
Deal struck after election
The Liberal government struck the deal with the federal government to bring in the 12 per cent HST immediately after winning the election. It was announced on July 23, unleashing widespread protest that eventually led opponents of the tax to collect about 560,000 verified signatures on a petition to repeal the tax.
The 140 pages of documents show that while the HST was being discussed at the highest levels well before the election, the impetus came from the federal government, and B.C. was reluctant to sign on — in part, it would seem, for political reasons.
One briefing note prepared by senior bureaucrats for a first ministers meeting in Ottawa on Jan. 16, 2009, says the federal government is encouraging the provinces to harmonize their sales taxes, and that while B.C. recognizes the benefits, it is concerned about shifting the tax burden from business to individuals.
It also notes “a lack of support from some business sectors, the need to protect low-income individuals and families from tax increases, and the need to ensure adequate provincial revenues.”
Then a second briefing note prepared for the minister, Colin Hansen, on March 12 — a month before the election campaign began — said B.C. will likely be asked about its position on harmonization in light of the expected announcement from Ontario.
It spells out both the possible benefits and downside of the HST in candid terms, quoting a study by the C.D. Howe Institute.
It says the study “suggests that, while the long-term economic gain from harmonization is relatively clear, harmonization will cause a short-term loss in GDP and unemployment .… It may take five or more years before the impact on GDP is positive and even longer for real wages and job numbers to recover.”
That’s a far less optimistic view than the one expressed by the minister in his public comments. He has repeatedly said experts call the HST the single biggest thing the government can do to boost the economy.
Discussion through election campaign
The discussion among senior bureaucrats in Victoria and Ottawa continued through the winter and spring and into the election campaign, but it picked up steam when the Ontario government said in its March budget it would adopt the HST.
This set off alarm bells in Victoria that investors would be lured away from B.C.
In a flurry of emails written in March and April, the B.C. bureaucrats ask whether Hansen has taken any position on the HST and suggest some “options.” All of the options he was given in the document, however, were censored before the documents were released.
On April 26, during the election campaign, the Liberal Party was asked in a questionnaire from the B.C. Restaurant and Foodservice Association, “Will your party oppose harmonizing GST with PST in British Columbia?”
The party official response was “…A harmonized GST is not something that is contemplated in the B.C. Liberal platform, but we are committed to improving the tax system.”
Rate cut leads to final deal
There are more heavily censored emails exchanged between ministry bureaucrats during the campaign. Then, on May 11, just the day before the election, there is what appears to be a critical exchange of emails between two top bureaucrats, the assistant deputy ministers of finance in Ottawa and Victoria.
The comments of the federal bureaucrat have been censored, but his provincial counterpart in B.C. writes, “Am I correct in assuming a province could now start at a rate other than 8 per cent?” perhaps referring to a deal to allow B.C. to roll out the harmonized rate at 12 per cent in BC, not 13 per cent as in Ontario.
In public, Hansen has said he only agreed to adopt the HST when the federal government agreed to the lower rate and to give B.C. $1.6 billion in transition funds.
After the tax was introduced, the Liberals came under fire for not mentioning it during the election campaign and were accused of keeping plans secret from the public.
On Aug. 25, 2009, however, Campbell insisted it was not in their plans during the election.
“We’ve been very clear with regard to the HST,” said Campbell. “It was not anywhere on our radar … as we went through the election. Wasn’t on my mind as we went through the election.” With files from the CBC’s Jeff Davies
[CBC.ca]
August 20, 2010
B.C.’s 700,000-signature anti-HST petition will be allowed to proceed, a B.C. Supreme Court judge ruled Friday morning in Vancouver.
Chief Justice Robert Bauman said in his decision that Premier Gordon Campbell himself called the petition against the harmonized sales tax a success for democracy and it would be denying petitioners the fruits of that victory to deny them the right to proceed.
Bauman asked B.C.’s chief electoral officer to forward the petition to the legislature, where a committee will now have to either send it directly to the house for a vote or hold a non-binding provincial vote sometime next year.
[CBC.ca]
August 16, 2010
The fight over B.C.’s HST shifted from the political arena to the courtroom on Monday when supporters and opponents of the harmonized sales tax began arguing their cases in B.C. Supreme Court in Vancouver.
Former premier Bill Vander Zalm and the organizers of the Fight HST petition are facing off against a legal team representing a business group that supports the new tax.
The business group made up of the Council of Forest Industries, the Mining Association of B.C., the Coast Forest Products Association and the B.C. Chamber of Commerce wants the petition tossed out, saying the HST is a federal tax and not subject to provincial laws.
But Vander Zalm’s lawyer has filed a counterclaim that the HST be declared unconstitutional because it was never voted on in the provincial legislature.
If the court rules the petition is constitutionally valid, the legislative committee would have to decide whether to send a bill to the legislature withdrawing the HST or to put the issue to a province-wide referendum.
No appeal planned says business group
Chief Justice Robert Bauman has scheduled a week to hear arguments, and there has been speculation that the legal battle could drag on for years if the losing side decides to appeal the decision.
But on Monday morning, the business group indicated it has no plans to appeal if the judge rules against it. Lawyers for the province and the federal government are also expected to sit in on the hearings.
Vander Zalm’s is attempting to roll back the new 12 per cent tax, which came into effect on July 1, with a petition under the province’s initiative legislation.
Elections B.C. verified the 700,000 signature petition was valid last week. However the province’s chief electoral officer decided not send it to the legislature while the legal challenge was before the court.
Committee will await court ruling
Frustrated by the legal delay, Vander Zalm attempted to take matters into his own hands last week and deliver the petition to the legislative committee himself.
But on Monday morning, Liberal MLA Terry Lake, who is the convener of the legislative committee, confirmed the committee won’t accept the petition from anyone but B.C.’s chief electoral officer.
“It’s clear from the legislation that only the chief electoral officer can submit the petition, the legislative initiative, to the committee,” said Lake.
Over the weekend, one committee member, John Slater, suggested he was ready to address the issue, but Lake said the legislative committee has no meetings scheduled and no plans to consider the petition until the courts have dealt with the constitutional questions.
“We’re in standby mode at this point,” Lake told CBC News.
Vander Zalm has said previously that members of his HST group are planning to recall Liberal MLAs if they don’t repeal the tax.
Former energy minister Blair Lekstrom left the governing Liberal Party in June, because, he said, he could no longer support the unpopular tax.
[CBC.ca]
August 11, 2010
B.C. Premier Gordon Campbell’s Liberal government suffered a historic blow Wednesday as the province’s elections agency upheld a petition against the unpopular harmonized sales tax that was signed by more than 700,000 voters.
The decision sets the stage for a new vote on the tax in the legislature or a possible referendum.
It is the first time a petition has been passed since Canada’s only law allowing such petitions was enacted in B.C. in 1995.
The province’s acting chief elections officer announced the milestone in a letter to the petition proponent – former B.C. premier William Vander Zalm – but wrote that he would not take further steps on the matter until a court action against the petition is dealt with.
Mr. Vander Zalm, who has become the poster boy for anti-HST forces in B.C., was outraged by the possible delay, but savoured the victory nonetheless.
“It did pass so I am extremely happy about that,” Mr. Vander Zalm told reporters, as supporters, including his wife Lillian, sipped champagne during a news conference.
“It made history.”
But Mr. Vander Zalm said he and his supporters will now use other provisions of the province’s Recall and Initiative Act to target Liberal MLAs in their ridings, seeking signatures from 40 per cent of voters in order to force by-elections.
“Every Liberal MLA is vulnerable as of today,” he said, promising he and fellow activists would work out their targets in the days ahead. “We will recall every MLA, every Liberal MLA if need be. We’ll obviously not do it all at once.”
Mr. Campbell’s Liberal government ruled out an HST before the May, 2009, provincial election, then adopted a new 12 per cent hybrid of the former 7 per cent provincial sales tax and 5 per cent federal goods and services tax. The move whipped up enough public fury to massively erode Liberal support in public opinion polls.
One recent poll has suggested that even two-star candidates could not enable the Liberals to overcome the NDP if they succeeded Mr. Campbell. However, the next election is not scheduled until 2013.
Mr. Campbell has conceded he is to blame for the public turmoil because he did not do a good job of selling the HST to the public.
NDP House Leader Mike Farnworth, standing not far from Mr. Vander Zalm, said that Wednesday’s decision marked a turning point in B.C. politics.
“Seven hundred thousand people have signed a petition and it passed the threshold. I think that is a remarkable achievement in this province, and I think is a historic achievement in British Columbia. We have never seen anything like that,” Mr. Farnworth said.
[Globe & Mail]
The B.C. government has again postponed plans to mail out flyers outlining the benefits of the harmonized sales tax, even though the flyers have already been printed.
Finance Minister Colin Hansen said furore over the tax seems to have subsided and the information has been posted on the Finance Ministry’s website instead.
“The feedback we’ve had from the public and from many of the MLAs, many felt that it might even be in fact counterproductive at this stage,” said Hansen.
The minister originally planned to send out the flyer in April to counter what he called misinformation in former premier Bill Vander Zalm’s petition campaign against the HST.
But regulations prevented the flyer from being mailed out during the petition drive and Hansen decided to wait until August to send it out. Now the mailing will be halted once again.
“I think the other factor we had to consider was that the two court cases with regard to the petition are going to be heard, starting in the middle of August, and that’s about the time that the mailer would have been hitting mail,” he said.
Some of that material will be included in a different mailing as part of the annual pre-budget consultations, said Hansen.
Money wasted, says NDP
But NDP finance critic Bruce Ralston doesn’t think that’s a good use of taxpayers’ money.
“Not only … is it wasteful of public money, it seems doubly wasteful to print them and then not mail them on some vague pretext that they might be used at some future date,” he said.
Ralston said he thinks the finance minister was afraid of further inflaming public opinion.
“I think this is just a part of the continuing litany about the HST where the B.C. Liberals — despite the opposition hammering away at them in the legislature over the past year, despite the public outcry, despite the 700,000 signatures — they just refuse to listen to the people of British Columbia,” he said.
The 12 per cent HST came into effect on July 1, replacing the federal GST and the provincial sales tax on almost all goods and services.
The government says the tax will be revenue neutral and more efficient, but critics say the increased tax on items that were exempt from the PST, such as restaurant food, will hurt consumers and small businesses, while cutting taxes for big business.
Read more: http://www.cbc.ca/canada/british-columbia/story/2010/07/29/bc-hst-flyer-cancelled.html#ixzz0vBqNq7Hg
July 23, 2010
Delta – Less than three weeks after the introduction of the HST in BC, consumers and businesses alike are reporting that the impact of the new tax is much worse than many thought it would be, says former BC Premier Bill Vander Zalm.
We are finding that the government has not been truthful with us about the HST yet again. The new tax actually amounts to more than 12% in some cases, because we have a tax on taxes,” said Vander Zalm, leader of the Fight HST petition to repeal the tax.
Vander Zalm says that anyone who has purchased an item with an eco fee or a deposit fee will notice the HST is applied on top of those other taxes. “The same problem occurs with the Parking Sales Tax – 12% HST is added on the 21% parking tax for a total of 35.2% in tax. It is outrageous!”
Vander Zalm says many parking vendors, as well as other businesses, have used the HST as an opportunity to increase the cost of goods at the same time. “Many have noticed that parking charges were also raised along with the new tax. In some cases parking fees went from $ 6.50 per hour to $ 10.00 per hour.”
“But it’s not just parking garages. Some grocery items not subject to the HST went up as well. Our friend took their youngest son to the barber last week. Before the HST he charged $10, but after HST the haircut became $15 including the HST.”
Vander Zalm says that same barber would only cut hair for cash, and would not issue receipts. In some cases, people have reported being charged GST, PST and HST on the same bill. “My drycleaner tells me he is being hit twice – first with an eco fee and now the HST on his dry cleaning service. He says customers will now go without in order to save money they must pay elsewhere.”
Vander Zalm says the government has done an abysmal job of informing business on how and what to charge the HST on. He says it has given a lot of people a great excuse to up prices, and to overcharge on the tax.
Vander Zalm says he has received numerous emails from British Columbians complaining about the tax:
A Kamloops man was told he would not have to pay any HST on the purchase of a new home he was having built because it was under the $520K threshold. But then his builder told him he had to pay an additional $23,000 up front until he received his “rebate” from the government on his taxes a year from now. “I don’t have that kind of money lying around. I will have to borrow it from a bank at interest. So much for HST not affecting a new home under $520K!”
A Vancouver man says his wife bought a package of “Huggies” diapers and was charged .80 cents HST. “Wasn’t that the same product the Finance Minister was holding up on TV saying there would be no HST? Either Safeway doesn’t know what they are doing, or Hansen, or both. What a fiasco!”
A furious accountant recently found out when he went to sell his boat that instead of the buyer having to pay only 5% GST, they now had to pay 12% under a “new” provincial tax called the TDP which was implemented to compete with the HST. “The buyer refused to pay the additional 7%, so guess who had to eat that?!”
A North Vancouver woman who runs a child care centre got a huge shock when she went to pay the rent on her business. The commercial lease increased by $691 per month due to HST. “This will put me in dire straits if I don’t pass the cost on to my clients. People are already struggling, and now to hit them with this, just after the government voted themselves a raise! Enough is enough!”
A Fishing Charter company in Mission says business is down significantly over last year as consumers have less disposable income as a result of the HST. He says costs are also up, making the HST a double whammy for him. “Instead of coming out of a recession, the government is making it worse with the HST. This is going to kill my business. I hope they all rot in hell with the other dictators in history.”
A businesswoman put an offer on a C11 zoned house to use as a building for her business. Then she found out that another $40,800 in HST would be applied to the sale because the tenants are paying more than $20 per day each for the two suites. As the building has no revenues, she has no way of getting the tax back. “I cancelled the deal. The HST cost me my location, cost both realtors their commissions and cost the vendor his sale. What a great way to stifle economic growth!”
A manufacturer of automatic gates says the HST has been responsible for several sales cancellations and is doing irreparable harm to his company. “They have started another tax cheating society such like we see in third world countries where bribes and cheating on taxes is the norm.”
A customer at a Mac’s convenience store in Salmon Arm was charged $2.33 for a magazine listed at $1.99 before taxes. On the receipt it listed the taxes at 12% “PST” plus 5% “GST” for a total of 17% in sales taxes. “Even some large chains haven’t figured out what they are supposed to charge in taxes. It is a total mess and a total rip off!”
Vander Zalm points out that even a soothing, stress preventing cup of coffee at Starbucks that used to be $1.69 is now $ 2.00 including the HST. “The price just went up and so far nothing has come down, not even the price of a ton of coal or a barrel of oil,” said Vander Zalm. “So far we have only seen price increases but no price decreases. The Minister of Finance admitted that the Aluminum Company in northern B.C., this year alone, would benefit to the tune of $70 million. But don’t hold your breath waiting for the price of aluminum to come down.”
Vander Zalm says citizens have called to tell him that when they complained too many time to the government about the HST, they were blocked as “spam” by the Finance Ministers email.
“He doesn’t want to hear the complaints. He won’t hear them. This government has shut its ears and its mind to the people. Now, they are spending millions on radio ads, and a mail out to all BC households! They are drunk with power. It is total madness, and British Columbians are being asked to pay the price for it all.”
Vander Zalm says early reports on the petition signature validation have been positive, and he is hopeful both the petition and the court challenge will have positive results, forcing the government to reverse course on the HST, saving BC from its long term negative consequences.
“We are going to keep fighting until the tax is gone. We’ll do it with the petition, or the court challenge, or if necessary, Recalls. But we won’t stop until they cancel this hated sales tax,” promised Vander Zalm.
Ian Bailey July 5, 2010
Former B.C. premier Bill Vander Zalm and fellow anti-HST activists have launched a court action to kill the tax.
On the steps of the B.C. Supreme Court on Monday, Mr. Vander Zalm said the tax should be struck down because it violates “core constitutional principles,” including no taxation without representation.
In a petition filed Monday, Mr. Vander Zalm argues the specific Comprehensive Integrated Tax Coordination Agreement between Victoria and Ottawa to lead to the HST was not ratified by the B.C. legislature.
According to the petition, because the agreement did not originate in the legislature and has not been approved there, it runs contrary to the section of the constitution that requires this sequence of events.
“In every province in Canada that adopted the HST, it was their legislatures that enacted the tax, involving the whole democratic process, not simply a stroke of the finance minister’s pen – but that is exactly what happened in B.C.,” Mr. Vander Zalm said.
He said this latest move was prompted by last week’s legal action launched by a business coalition whose members include the Council of Forest Industries and BC Chamber of Commerce.
The business coalition argues Elections BC should not have allowed the anti-HST petition to move forward because it aims to force the province to extinguish the federally created HST, which it cannot do. The petition against the 12-per-cent tax – a blend of the provincial sales tax and the federal goods and services tax – has garnered more than 700,000 signatures and is now under review by Elections BC.
If Elections BC concludes the petition passes muster under the Recall and Initiative Act, the government must either hold a referendum or put the matter to a vote of the legislature.
Chris Delaney, the lead organizer for the Fight HST group central to Mr. Vander Zalm’s efforts, said the court action announced Monday is independent of the petition.
“It’s important to understand. This will challenge the legality of the tax itself in British Columbia. The petition, of course, challenges the political viability of the tax, whether the people want it or they don’t,” Mr. Delaney told reporters. “This is sort of the big showstopper. If this thing goes through, that’s the end of the tax.”
Attorney-General Mike de Jong said in an interview that he was reluctant to comment in detail on a matter that was before the courts. However, he said the question raised by Mr. Vander Zalm’s legal action is one the government considered in developing its approach to implementing the HST. “We’re confident we’re on firm legal footing,” he said Monday.
Vancouver lawyer Joe Arvay, who is handling the matter for Mr. Vander Zalm, told reporters there are strong legal grounds for the case – “I wouldn’t have taken it if I didn’t think it was a strong challenge” – and that he hopes to have it before the courts by Aug. 1.
“We consider this to be a relatively urgent matter,” he said. “We’re going to try to get into court as soon as possible, and we’ll be seeking an order of the court to strike down the order in council that authorized the minister of finance to enter into the agreement which brings the HST in British Columbia and declare that agreement a nullity and of no force and effect.”
Mr. Vander Zalm and his associates in the anti-HST movement attending the news conference said they were raising funds to pay for the legal action, but would not comment in detail on their financing.
[Globe & Mail]
The anti-HST petition reached a new benchmark this weekend, gathering signatures from 15 per cent of registered voters in all of British Columbia’s 85 ridings.
The campaign reached their goal of 10 per cent in May, meeting the minimum threshold set by Elections BC. In total, the petition has 35 per cent more signatures than required.
“This means that one of every three signatures would have to be discarded in any one of our ridings for the petition to fail,” lead organizer Chris Delaney said.
Although the anti-HST campaign has reached its goal, canvassers will continue to collect signatures until the petition is submitted to Elections BC on June 30, Delaney told ctvbc.ca.
Delaney said that if any one riding has to be dropped, the petition is void. His group will try to fatten the numbers in ethnic communities in particular, where people may have signed against the harmonized sales tax without having registered as voters.
The announcement comes less than week after former energy minister Blair Lekstrom resigned over the HST.
“We think he did the right thing,” Delaney said, who hopes other Liberal MLAs will follow suit.
Fight HST Leader Bill Vander Zalm is calling on Premier Gordon Campbell to cancel the tax before it takes effect on July 1.
“Cancelling it prior to that date would save everyone from having to change their lives to accommodate the tax, only to have to change it all around again when the tax is repealed in the fall,” he said.
[CTV.ca]
Gary Mason June 11, 2010
As long as Blair Lekstrom was associated with a government that was bringing in one of the most reviled taxes in B.C. history, he was dead politician walking in his riding of Peace River South.
Now, it increasingly appears it will be the political career of Premier Gordon Campbell that will be finished as a result of the Harmonized Sales Tax that goes into effect July 1.
Mr. Lekstrom’s abrupt resignation from cabinet and the Liberal caucus over the government’s insistence in bringing in the tax is the type of blow that knocks the wind out of a governing party – if only temporarily. And there is no other way to interpret the move other than a direct challenge to Mr. Campbell’s leadership.
The Premier is savvy enough to understand this. The question is, will others around Mr. Campbell’s cabinet table follow Mr. Lekstrom’s lead? Perhaps if they care about their re-election chances they will.
For his part, Mr. Lekstrom understood perfectly well that his life as an MLA was kaput if he didn’t take the radical step that he did. There may not be an area of the province that resents taxes more than Peace River South, which abuts the B.C.-Alberta boundary. It is one of the reasons the riding has always been allergic to the New Democratic Party, which has a reputation for loving taxes .
But the HST ignited a fury in the riding the likes of which hasn’t been seen in some time. Well, at least since the Liberals broke a campaign promise in 2002 not to sell BC Rail. People were pretty upset about that, too. But according to Alvin Stedel, a local businessman in Dawson Creek, the rage over the HST is without precedent.
“I’m not sure I’ve ever seen people this mad,” he said.
Mr. Stedel once sat on council when Mr. Lekstrom was mayor of Dawson Creek. Mr. Stedel says he always voted for the free-enterprise option in provincial elections, whether it was the Social Credit party, Reform or the Liberals. But he was upset enough about the HST that he led the local petition to have the tax repealed. He managed to get 4,865 signatures, which was 351 more than the number of votes Mr. Lekstrom received in the past election.
“I think Blair has done the honourable thing,” Mr. Stedel said Friday from Dawson Creek. “Now Peace River South has its representative back. This is democracy in action.
“Blair has probably just ensured that he’s re-elected by huge numbers next time around. Otherwise, he was in trouble.”
And Mr. Lekstrom knew that.
This is not the first time the former minister of energy, mines and petroleum resources has broke ranks with his party. When the Liberals ripped up Health Employees Union contracts earlier in the decade, Mr. Lekstrom spoke out against the decision. Most figured that was the end of his cabinet ambitions.
It wasn’t.
But the HST is a different fish, and Mr. Lekstrom understood this. Maybe he knew, too, that if he was ever going to seek the leadership of his party – as some suspect he wants to – dissociating himself from the hated tax was the politically astute thing to do.
Maybe he also calculated he had nothing to lose at this point. Politically, the HST is taking his party over a cliff. Recent polls show the Liberals in freefall. Mr. Campbell is more unpopular than at any point in his leadership – which is saying something.
There is a growing chorus of murmurs in the party ranks about “the problem at the top.” As well, there are supporters around a small group of potential leadership candidates, mostly current cabinet ministers, who have been phoning around gauging support. Expect that activity to heat up now.
The B.C. Liberal party, and especially its caucus, has been characterized for many years now by a fierce loyalty to the leader. If Mr. Campbell hasn’t ruled with an iron fist, it has at least been with a steely glare and an unflinching ability to make examples out of those whose allegiance became questionable at any time.
Mr. Lekstrom’s decision to quit the caucus represents a huge crack in the wall of solidarity that has always surrounded the party. Suddenly it doesn’t look so invincible and unassailable any more.
Just like Mr. Campbell’s leadership.
[Globe & Mail]
By Yolande Cole June 1, 2010
B.C. Premier Gordon Campbell and his finance minister, Colin Hansen, faced a grilling from CKNW talk show hosts on Friday over their HST policy.
Both politicians stuck to their position that they made no promise not to implement a harmonized sales tax policy during the election.
“There was no such promise made,” Hansen told radio host Jill Bennett on CKNW.
“When people say that, they’re not being accurate.”
Premier Campbell said that at the time of the election, the HST policy was not on his party’s radar. It was after the election, through discussions with the federal government, that they saw there was a new sales tax regime in place that would allow for a provincially determined HST, he said.
Campbell dismissed rumours that he would be taking a senate appointment from Prime Minister Stephen Harper.
“I’m really glad to be here and doing this job and I hope to do it for a long time to come,” he said.
CKNW host Jill Bennett asked the finance minister if he was prepared to lose his job over the controversial policy.
“I didn’t go into politics to win a popularity contest,” Hansen told the host.
“I went into politics basically to do what’s right, to make sure that we can build a strong British Columbia for the future, and this is one of the things that do that.”
When pressed again over whether he was prepared to lose his job over the HST, Hansen replied:
“The answer would be yes. If I felt that we weren’t doing the right thing, if I felt that the HST was not going to be a huge benefit for British Columbia, we wouldn’t have done it in the first place,” he said.
“But just because there is as much misinformation about the HST floating around, and that people are signing petitions, doesn’t mean that government should turn around and reverse what is the right decision to do.”
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