According to a source close to the matter, the referendum on whether to extinguish the HST has been won by the “Yes” side. This means that sometime later this year, GST and PST will be reinstated by the Liberal government. No information has been provided as to when these changes will take place.

The official announcement from Elections BC is to take place two days from now on Friday, August 26. Elections BC has said that when it is ready it will present the results to the Speaker of the legislature, followed immediately by a public news release.

More information will be posted if and when it becomes available.

The government will reduce the HST by one percentage point in July of next year and then another point in July of 2014, cutting the tax from 12 to 10 per cent, if the tax survives the referendum, Finance Minister Kevin Falcon announced on Wednesday morning.

The government will also issue transition cheques to all B.C. families with children under 18. The one-time payments of $175 per child will offset increased HST costs before the first cut takes effect next year.

There will be similar payments to low and modest income seniors, meaning the average B.C. family will pay $120 a year less in tax under the 10 per cent HST when compared with the old 12 per cent PST/GST combination, the finance ministry said.

In addition, the government will increase the general corporate income tax rate to 12 per cent from the current 10 per cent on Jan. 1, 2012, and postpone the reduction in the small business tax rate planned for April 1, 2012, said the ministry.

B.C. Premier Christy Clark said she hoped the changes would convince people the B.C. Liberal government had changed since she took over from former premier Gordon Campbell in February.

“I hope people will look at what I have done so far in the two months that I have been here and see that there has been real change in the way that government operates,” said Clark after the proposals were rolled out.

Liberals threatening voters, says NDP

NDP Opposition Leader Adrian Dix said the proposed changes were just more financial turmoil caused by the B.C. Liberals.

“I hear the minister of finance and the premier, who caused this chaos — this government, the B.C. Liberal Party caused this chaos to the economy — now saying if you don’t follow us now, even though we caused all this damage, that there will be more damage — threatening voters,” said Dix.

Reaction to the proposed changes was mixed in the business community.

John Winter, the president of the B.C. Chamber of Commerce said the benefits of keeping the HST outweigh the higher corporate taxes, and he hopes the changes are enough for British Columbians to vote in favour of keeping the HST.

“These are very bold, strategic moves by government to change the problems the detractors have been identifying without reverting back into the old PST/GST system. The benefits of harmonization are far greater than the corporate taxes that are contemplated being changed,” said Winter.

But Ian Tostenson, the president of the B.C. Restaurant and Food Services Association, was less enthused about the changes, because the tax still applies to restaurant food, but not groceries.

“We’re pretty neutral, negative almost on this, not that we don’t see that the HST is likely a good tax for the economy, but we continue to have, even at 10 per-cent, a real difference in taxation between ourselves and food that you purchase in a grocery store, that’s our biggest concern,”

The Greater Vancouver Homebuilders Association was also lukewarm on the changes. President Peter Simpson says the higher corporate taxes will hurt homebuilders, but the lower HST would obviously benefit new homebuyers.

“[On] new homes — two percent is welcome certainly, but it’s staged and I don’t think people will wait to buy a home because it’s coming off an extra point in 2014, ” he said.

Report found HST costing families

The announcement comes less than one month before the ballots for the HST referendum are mailed out to B.C. voters on June 13. All ballots must be received by July 22 to be counted.

The move also comes after an independent report found the HST had increased the tax burden on the average family by $350 a year, although low income families are actually paying less.

The report also found that the HST has shifted a greater share of taxes from business to individuals and families and that the government was taking in more than $820 million a year in revenue than it would have under the older PST/GST.

Before the changes were announced, the government also conducted an online poll asking taxpayers how they’d feel about a variety of possible tax-relief measures.

Currently, the HST is in B.C. is 12 per cent, one per cent lower than the 13 per cent HST in many provinces.

[CBC]

Though voters will technically cast ballots on former premier Bill Vander Zalm’s draft HST Extinguishment Act — which includes a proposal to refund HST revenues on a per capita basis — the B.C. government won’t pass his bill in the legislature, Hansen said.

“In my opinion it would not be responsible for any government or any legislature to commit to passing the HST Extinguishment act as it is currently drafted,” he said.

A refund would be “almost administratively impossible,” said Hansen. “The ramifications of trying to unwind the HST and retroactively re-impose the provincial sales tax would not be practical.”

Instead, the Liberal government is developing its own plan to extinguish the HST should a simple majority of citizens vote to repeal the HST, he said. That plan won’t include a rebate, he said.

An outraged Vander Zalm blasted the Liberals for ignoring the law, as outlined in the Recall and Initiative Act. The draft bill was approved by both Elections B.C. and a B.C. Supreme Court judge during a challenge by big business groups earlier this year.

“We went through a process according to law,” he said.

“We went by the legislation. They can’t ignore the act. A dictator would do that. They have a law and they let us go through a whole process for a whole year to work within the law and now they say we’re going to ignore the results?”

A legislative committee this week sent Vander Zalm’s petition to extinguish the HST to a non-binding provincewide vote, scheduled for Sept. 24, 2011.

If 50 per cent of B.C.’s registered voters vote in favour of repealing the HST — including 50 per cent in at least two-thirds of the 85 electoral districts — then Vander Zalm’s bill, as written, must be introduced into the house for a vote.

It’s a steep threshold, considering only 50 per cent of registered voters bothered casting a ballot in the 2009 election.

But Hansen reiterated Tuesday the government will cancel the HST, under its own terms, if only a simple majority of people in the referendum vote against the tax. Vander Zalm’s bill, which forms the legal basis of the referendum, won’t be considered.

The HST refund is not even the main issue, said Vander Zalm.

The former premier said he’d agree to drop the refund from the draft act if government would agree to hold the vote this year, amend the law to include its promise of following a simple majority and allow his Fight HST group to help word the referendum question.

Vander Zalm said he also wants government to promise not to spend taxpayer dollars fighting his group prior to the referendum. Hansen said it is likely the government will register with Elections B.C. as an opponent so that it can advertise against Vander Zalm’s bill.

The referendum could cost as much as $30 million, Elections B.C. has said.

The HST came into effect July 1.

If B.C. backed out of its deal with Ottawa, it would have to return $1.6 billion in transitional funding, as well as cease HST rebate cheques for 1.1 million people, rebuild its provincial tax system and absorb a number of additional costs, said Hansen.

“If the voters of British Columbia go out and vote against the harmonized sales tax there will be consequences,” said Hansen.

The finance minister said he has faith that British Columbians will vote in favour of the tax once they understand its benefits to businesses and the economy. The public must also ask itself how it intends for its government to pay for services, and whether that is through increased taxes or some other means of generating money, said Hansen.

The exact wording of the referendum will be decided by the province’s chief electoral officer, in consultation with government, but must be clear and free of any political games, he said.

“The referendum is not about whether we did a good job of rolling out the harmonized sales tax. I think the jury is in on that one and we know the answer, we did not do a good job, again, for all kinds of reasons,” said Hansen.

“But the referendum is an opportunity for us to get past that and to say to British Columbians lets focus in on the merits of harmonizing our sales tax, the merits of getting rid of the old provincial sales tax system. Let’s have that debate and then the voters can decide.”

[Times Colonist]

VICTORIA – Premier Gordon Campbell says he will dump the much-hated harmonized sales tax if a majority of British Columbians vote to repeal the levy in a referendum next September.

Campbell said Monday he intends to toss aside the official referendum rules and turn the vote into an election-style simple majority vote that decides the future of the HST in the province.

Earlier Monday, an all-party legislative committee voted to send an anti-HST petition to a non-binding referendum that involved a difficult threshold of victory that included winning 50 per cent of the votes cast by registered voters in the 2009 B.C. election.

But Campbell said he will honour what the majority of British Columbians who vote in the referendum decide, meaning the majority vote will carry the day next year.

“Quite candidly, we don’t have any interest in trying to play games with this at all,” he said after the all-party committee opted to hold a referendum in September 2011.

“I think the fact of the matter is people want a direct say. If a majority of people that show up to the polls say they don’t want to have the HST, then they won’t have the HST.”

The province was forced into either holding a non-binding referendum or putting the issue to a vote in the legislature after anti-HST forces gathered more than half-a-million signatures on a petition.

“My bias right now is to say to people quite clearly that if they have a strong voice with regard to the HST and it fails, then it’s failed and we have to figure out what we do next,” said Campbell.

“This is about giving people a full say.”

He acknowledged that it would be difficult for anti-HST forces to achieve referendum success under British Columbia’s current recall and initiative law that permits recalls of sitting politicians and referendum votes on issues.

“I recognize what the legislation says,” Campbell said. “I believe that it’s appropriate to say to people if 50 per cent of the people that show up to the polls and vote against the HST, then we’ll get rid of the HST.”

The HST deal British Columbia signed with Ottawa in July 2009 includes escape clauses, but reneging means the B.C. government will likely have to pay back the $1.6 billion Ottawa offered to cover the cost of transitioning to the blended tax.

Former premier Bill Vander Zalm stormed out of Monday’s committee meeting, noting that the referendum rules make it almost impossible to win.

The law requires 50 per cent of registered voters cast ballots in favour of ditching the tax. That same threshold must be met in at least two-thirds of the province’s 89 ridings.

Vander Zalm, who’s led the charge against the tax, commended Campbell Monday evening after hearing the premier will leave the fate of the HST up to the people.

“I guess the premier saw our frustrations, at least I’m hoping that might have been the reason,” Vander Zalm said in an interview.

“Some would say he’s finally come to his senses, but I would like to think that he’s finally beginning to give recognition to the voice of the people. That’s a good thing.”

Vander Zalm said the only way he’ll scrap plans for a recall campaign against Liberal MLAs is if the referendum is held in 2010, instead of 2011.

He expressed concern that if the referendum is held next year it will hurt the economy, because British Columbians will hold off on certain expenditures until the tax is gone.

The Opposition New Democrats, who ended up voting in favour of the referendum question, said they will be watching to ensure the B.C. cabinet does not become too involved in influencing the development and approval of the eventual referendum question.

University of Victoria political scientist Dennis Pilon said Campbell’s decision appears to be a bold act of political survival, while also honouring the efforts of the thousands of British Columbians who worked on the anti-HST petition.

“This is a major breakthrough’” said Pilon. “The premier should be commended for doing the right thing. The rules for this referendum were rigged to fail.”

Campbell’s government has faced a growing firestorm of criticism after it announced the tax just weeks after winning an election in May 2009 in which it said it wasn’t contemplating such a switch.

Finance Minister Colin Hansen has maintained the province wasn’t considering it until days after the election, when he was presented with documents that outlined the HST deal Ontario was about to enter into with the federal government.

Vander Zalm’s forces were out all summer gathering signatures.

The government received another blow when internal briefing notes revealed bureaucrats in the Finance Ministry were working on the HST well before the election. Hansen said they were doing their job and he was unaware of it.

The controversy prompted one cabinet minister to resign and several Liberal party supporters have come forward with calls for Campbell’s resignation.

Campbell said Monday he feels terrible about it all.

“I feel awful that people feel like we let them down.”

But Campbell isn’t conceding that the HST will eventually be repealed.

He said he still believes it’s the right move for the province and will vigorously campaign in hopes of convincing people to vote in favour of it.

He said by the time the referendum is held next fall, some of the benefits of the tax will already have set in, including the creation of thousands of jobs.

Vander Zalm can’t see how a majority of voters would elect to keep the tax.

“That’s impossible, in my view,” he said.

The referendum will cost $30 million.

[Yahoo.ca]

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]

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]

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]

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]

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

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.