When the B.C. Liberals cast about for after-the-fact validation of their decision to harmonize the provincial sales tax with its federal counterpart last year, they turned to one of the country’s leading experts on tax policy, Jack Mintz.

Mintz, an economist and former head of the business-oriented C.D. Howe Institute, is now chair in public policy at the University of Calgary. The Liberals discovered last fall that he was already preparing an assessment of the Ontario government’s tax harmonization plan.

So B.C. decided to “piggyback” on that already-in-the-works study, as Finance Minister Colin Hansen put it Monday. The cost was nevertheless about $12,000, indicating the commission was by no means a complementary Mintz. (Sorry.)

For that outlay of tax dollars, Hansen and his colleagues obtained a 14-page report showing how the HST will reduce the effective tax rate on capital investment “for all industrial sectors and all sizes of business.”

The improved investment climate will generate upwards of $10 billion in new capital investment, thereby creating more than 100,000 jobs over the next 10 years.

Impressive numbers, though as several Liberals noted, Mintz appeared to be even more enthusiastic about the prospects for growth as a result of sales tax harmonization in Ontario.

In his earlier survey, released last November, he projected the creation of almost 600,000 jobs in the central Canadian province over the same span of years. Allowing for the differences in population, he was forecasting about double the annual rate of employment growth (one per cent versus one half of one per cent) in Ontario as opposed to B.C.

The difference was explained by the more ambitious tax regime that accompanied Ontario’s move to a harmonized sales tax. Many of those changes were already in place here in B.C., something Mintz acknowledged in noting that harmonization would give B.C. one of the most competitive investment climates, not just in Canada but internationally.

“A giant leap” he called it, regrettably omitting the “forward” that would have echoed the Maoist touch of some of Premier Gordon Campbell’s earlier sloganeering. (The New Era, the Five Great Goals, the Four Pillars, and so on.)

And speaking of leaps, the Liberals would appear to have made theirs in the dark. For all their efforts to trumpet the Mintz findings as evidence that harmonization was the best policy for B.C., they were unable to cite even one study specific to this province when they announced the move last July 23.

The New Democrats seized on the findings Monday as well, albeit for their own reasons. Opposition members delighted in the Liberals’ insistence on drawing further attention to a decision that pretty much destroyed their post-electoral honeymoon in a single day.

They also recalled, from their own time in government, the risk of putting out purely hypothetical job-creation figures in an uncertain economic climate.

Remember the jobs-and-timber accord from the NDP’s second term of office, with its projection of 40,000 jobs over four years? NDP veterans recall it well. They also recall the comment of their then forests minister, Dave Zirnhelt, when none of those jobs materialized.

“A target is just that — a target,” he told reporters. “We never said we were going to create those jobs.”

For the New Democrats, Hansen’s timing could not have been better. Opposition Leader Carole James is touring the province, trying to regenerate the public indignation over the HST that was so evident before the Olympics.

She started in Kamloops last week. Rallies in Burnaby and Surrey are set for later this week. Mission, Courtenay, Vernon, Kelowna and other communities are still to come.

Ostensibly she’s pressuring B.C. Liberal MLAs in swing ridings to vote against the HST in the legislature or face an angry electorate next time. But as New Democrats know, the B.C. legislature won’t actually be voting to bring in the HST.

“Not in a direct way,” as Hansen reminded me during an interview on Voice of B.C. on Shaw TV last week. “The harmonized sales tax legislation is federal legislation.” And already the law of the land, having been passed by Parliament last December.

At the same time, as Hansen’s own budget documents note, “Implementation of the HST is subject to the approval of the legislature of B.C.” as well as by the Parliament of Canada.

Details to follow, in an enabling bill that will be tabled later this month. “Primarily,” as Hansen notes, “what the legislation will be is to eliminate the provincial sales tax.”

MLAs won’t likely vote against that. Otherwise, they would in effect be voting to subject the province to double taxation, the HST plus the PST, for a combined 19 per cent. “That’s obviously not in the cards,” acknowledged Hansen.

However, the cards do suggest a revised delivery schedule for the $1.6 billion in federal transition money and what looks like another $300 million tax grab by the Liberals over two years. In a subsequent column, I’ll discuss those and other HST-related wrinkles.

© Copyright (c) The Vancouver Sun

The harmonized sales tax, which takes effect July 1, will spark higher wages and create 113,000 new jobs, a new report commissioned by the B.C. government says.

The B.C. Liberal government has faced a public backlash over the tax since it was announced shortly after last May’s election. Last week, Finance Minister Colin Hansen described the transition as “widely regarded as the single most important step government can take to strengthen our economy.”

But it has been a tough sell. The HST will be due on a number of goods and services that are currently exempt from the provincial sales tax of 7 per cent.

Restaurants and bars continue to remind their customers that the tax will hit them in the pocketbook – a lesson more readily absorbed than explaining the benefits of reducing the marginal effective tax rate on capital.

But cutting that tax rate will mean more jobs and higher wages because B.C. will edge out Alberta and Ontario in attracting new investment, according to the new report by a leading tax expert.

“The tax reforms about to be implemented in British Columbia will have a profound effect on capital investment, jobs and incomes in the province, representing a giant leap toward its becoming one of the most competitive economies in the world,” wrote the report’s author, Jack Mintz, chair of the University of Calgary’s School of Public Policy.

The author and B.C.’s finance minister are set to release the report Monday at a news conference in Vancouver.

Prof. Mintz calculates that the move to the HST will reduce the tax rate on capital investments by 60 per cent over the next four years.

So while consumers can expect to see a bigger tax bill on hair cuts and restaurant meals this summer, the province will be more attractive to both small business and big industry.

“By 2018, when federal and B.C. corporate tax reductions and sales tax harmonization will be fully implemented, British Columbia will have a tax regime that is more attractive to capital than that of either Alberta or Ontario,” Prof. Mintz wrote.

He predicted that investments in capital will increase by $11.5-billion over the next decade.

The sectors that will benefit the most from the changes include construction, communications and household and business services. But for B.C.’s export-dependent economy, it’s the workers who end up taking home less pay when their employers face taxes on investment, he wrote.

“Without a doubt, British Columbia’s sales tax harmonization will be a game changer, promoting capital investment in the province and providing an opportunity for the private sector to create jobs and pay higher wages to workers,” he concluded.

Bowing to pressure, the B.C. government has already introduced exemptions to the HST worth hundreds of millions of dollars. But last week Mr. Hansen tried one other tactic to sweeten the pot, promising to earmark every dollar in HST revenue for health care.

[Globe and Mail]

Now the B.C. Liberals want you to think of the HST as the health-services tax.

In his latest bid to sell the harmonized sales tax — which the Liberals vow to bring in July 1 despite promising they wouldn’t during the last election — Finance Minister Colin Hansen announced that any money collected under the HST will be spent on health care.

The government has plunged in the polls because of the HST flip-flop. The vast majority of British Columbians oppose the tax, and now Hansen is trying to pitch it as a health tax to bolster public opinion.

“It’s a laughable and pathetic attempt to distort the reality of the tax,” said NDP finance critic Bruce Ralston. “The tax was first announced in July 2009, and this is the first time that they’ve tried to use this phoney explanation to sell a deeply unpopular tax.

“No one will believe them.”

To add insult to injury, after taking a pounding in the polls, the Liberals announced that they will, in fact, lose $113 million in tax revenue this year because of the introduction of the HST.

Originally conceived as a 12-per-cent provincial/federal tax on virtually everything, B.C. has relented to intense lobbying and public uproar and will refund HST to a number of sectors, including municipalities, school boards and non-profit groups.

The effect of all those exemptions means that as well as taking a political hit, the government will lose $113 million while desperately trying to get back on the road to a balanced budget.

“The net effect on revenue is $113 million less under HST than we did in a non-HST world,” said Hansen, whose chances of becoming premier have stalled because of a tax that will actually make it harder for him to balance the books.

Ralston calls the Liberals’ handling of the HST incompetence.

“In an environment where tax revenue is important, it’s incompetent to run a new tax this way,” said Ralston.

“They lied about it and now they won’t even get the revenue that they said they would.”

© Copyright (c) The Province

The HST doublecross inflicted on B.C. voters after last year’s election triggered some of the lamest excuses and spin-jobs I’ve ever seen from government.

Premier Gordon Campbell gave us one of the classics when explaining why the Liberals promised during the May election not to bring in the harmonized sales tax, only to betray voters after they were re-elected.

“It wasn’t on our radar screen,” said Campbell, who insisted the government only dreamt up the HST after the election was over.

Whatever.

Then there was the excuse that British Columbia had to bring in an HST because Ontario was doing it, too, so we had to match them to stay competitive.

Just one problem there: Ontario Premier Dalton McGuinty began talking about that province’s HST in January 2009 — four months before a B.C. election campaign in which Campbell’s Liberals insisted they had no plan to introduce the tax in British Columbia.

Lame, lame, lame!

But now we have the most laughable attempt yet to justify the Liberals’ gold medal for flip-flops.

On Tuesday, Finance Minister Colin Hansen announced in his budget that he will introduce a new law requiring all HST revenue to be dedicated to health-care spending.

“It’s an accountability measure,” Hansen said, explaining the new law would show British Columbians their tax dollars are going toward critical public services. Hansen said the government would allocate $3.7 billion of HST revenue to health care this year.

Dressing up the HST as a health-care-protection tax could help the Liberal party survive voter anger at election time.

But here’s the joke: The HST is supposed to be “revenue neutral” to government.

Although the HST will slam consumers with billions of dollars in new costs, businesses will be able to claim HST rebates and get their money back.

The HST will also replace revenue currently collected under the provincial sales tax, which will be phased out.

That $3.7 billion Hansen talked about Tuesday is grossly misleading.

Throw in all the rebates and writeoffs and the elimination of the PST, and the government will actually collect $113 million less total revenue under the HST.

The HST is actually a tax-burden transfer from business to consumers, and will not a generate a dime to pay for new public services.

Yet Hansen is preparing to pass a law that will try to argue the HST will generate billions of dollars for health care — one of the most deceptive tricks yet with this stab-in-the-back tax.

© Copyright (c) The Province

British Columbia’s Chief Electoral Officer Harry Neufeld approved the initiative on Thursday, giving the opponents of B.C.’s harmonized sales tax 90 days — starting on April 6 — to collect signatures from 10 per cent of voters in each of the 85 electoral ridings.

So far six other initiative petitions have been launched in B.C., and none have been successful, but Vander Zalm says he’s confident this initiative will succeed where others have failed.

“This is different because we have people of all political persuasions involved in the process, not just NDP. We have former Liberals, we have Conservatives, we have people with no party affiliation. They’re all in there,” he said.

Vander Zalm says teams of volunteers are ready to hit the streets with the petition on Apr. 6.

“Eight-five per cent of the people are opposed to the HST. We’ve kept the issue alive and now we’re going to go ahead like gangbusters and work on it,” said Vander Zalm.

Protest organizer Chris Delaney says the HST will hurt British Columbians at a time when they can least afford it.

“Every citizen will pay an average $500 per year more in sales tax. Major industries such as construction, real estate, restaurants and funeral services will be hit hard. Services like spas, haircuts, packaged foods, airline tickets and professional fees will go up, causing consumers to cut back and hurting our economy,” said Delaney.
Stringent requirements for initiative to pass

Everyone involved in collecting signatures, conducting advertising or opposing the petition will first have to register with Elections BC by Mar. 8.

If the petition is successful, it could trigger a province-wide referendum.

For the initiative to pass, more than 50 per cent of registered voters in at least two-thirds of the electoral districts in the province would have to vote in favour of it.

If that happened, the government would be required to introduce the draft bill contained in the petition to withdraw the HST.

The government also has the option of sending the draft bill directly to the legislature without a referendum.

But if either of those options succeed, there is no requirement for the government, which has a majority in the legislature, to pass the draft bill after it is introduced, and it could die on the floor of the house, just like many private member’s bills.

Vander Zalm launched the initiative when B.C.’s Liberal government announced the new tax shortly after the May 2009 election. It is due to come into effect on July 1st, replacing the current GST and PST with a 12 per cent tax on all goods and services.

An initiative to end the harmonized sales tax

* The purpose of the initiative draft bill is to declare that the agreement between the federal government and the British Columbia government to establish a harmonized sales tax (HST) is not in effect.
* The draft bill would reinstate the seven per cent provincial sales tax (PST) with the same exemptions as were in effect as of June 30, 2010 and establish the provincial sales tax as the only sales tax in British Columbia for the purposes of raising provincial revenue.
* The draft bill proposes that it be effective retroactively to June 30, 2010.
* The bill also proposes that the provincial share of HST revenues received between June 30, 2010 and the date of royal assent of the bill that exceeds what would be collected under the PST rules as of June 30, 2010 would be reimbursed to British Columbians on a per capita basis.

Source – BC Elections

[CBC.ca]

Taxpayers in British Columbia are outraged about the harmonized sales tax, and rightly so. It will add a new tax to many items previously exempt from the provincial sales tax, such as restaurant meals and new homes. The HST does, however, have some theoretical benefits. It simplifies the tax system and makes the province a more competitive place for business investment.

Nevertheless, the surprise HST announcement was met by a business lobbying effort demanding relief from the tax. One group that got a break was the new-home building industry. While this may help a few new-home buyers, it undermines the tax simplification benefits of the HST and does little to improve B.C.’s competitiveness. In fact, the government could have bolstered the competitiveness of the province and helped all families struggling to purchase homes by eliminating the property transfer tax instead.

The property transfer tax hits all property sales. It has no economic benefit, taxes mobility, and is a job killer that discourages companies from locating in B.C. The PTT adds two percent to the property price, less $2,000. So, a family struggling to buy a $525,000 home would have to pay an additional $8,500 in PTT.

The PTT was brought in by the Vander Zalm government in 1988 and became such a fantastic cash cow that no government since has eliminated it. Yet, the B.C. government knows the PTT is a bad tax. A motion at the B.C. Liberal convention in 2006 moved that the government abolish the PTT. The resolution was passed with overwhelming support and is part of B.C. Liberal party policy.

But this is where party policy and government policy diverge.

This tax generated almost $1 billion in revenue each year over the past five years on the backs of families struggling to buy homes, searching for a better life in new locations, and on businesses trying to expand. It makes B.C. a less competitive place for business investment.

Not only that, the revenue brought in by the PTT makes the break on the HST for new-home buyers look like chump change.

Since it announced the HST, the government has said it wants to be sure some new-home buyers pay “no more” in tax on new homes than they would have paid before the HST. Then, to show it had been listening to complaints about the HST, the government raised the threshold for the HST rebate on new homes from $400,000 to $525,000, and the maximum rebate from $20,000 to $26,250. This move will only put about $80 million per year back into the pockets of homebuyers, far less than what eliminating the PTT would have.

So the question becomes, why would the government complicate the HST and pander to the building industry by giving them a break instead of just getting rid of the PTT? The government might say it was because it listens to its key support groups. However, the real reason is more likely because government is addicted to the revenue stream the PTT provides.

If the government were truly interested in making B.C. a competitive place for business investment and helping families buy homes, it would eliminate the PTT.

[Straight.com]

You don’t have to die by July 1 to save 7 or 8 per cent in tax. You just have to pay for your funeral by then.

The death-care business in Ontario and British Columbia is gearing up for a marketing push to persuade consumers to prepay their funerals so they won’t be hit with the new harmonized sales tax.

With both provinces set to introduce the HST on July 1, transitional rules make it difficult to avoid higher costs from the combined tax by paying for services in advance.

One of the few exceptions is for future funerals. If a contract is signed and payments begin before the end of June, the HST will not be added to the total bill.

Currently, only the GST applies to most of the costs of a funeral. As of July 1, the higher HST rate (which incorporates provincial sales taxes) will apply. On a $10,000 funeral, the new tax will add about $800 in Ontario and $700 in B.C.

In Ontario in particular, the funeral industry wants to get out the message to potential customers that they can save substantially if they book before the end of June.

“There is going to be strenuous effort to market this,” said Harry Renaud, executive director of Guaranteed Funeral Deposits of Canada (GFD), a not-for-profit organization that helps 350 Ontario funeral homes manage the money they glean from prepayments.

GFD has prepared advertising and marketing materials that can be used by individual funeral homes, which “are all gearing up to … conduct quite a marketing campaign in their respective communities,” he said.

Mr. Renaud said he has not yet seen a jump in prepaid funerals, but “we’re anticipating that there could be quite a spike in new business, probably in the month of June as a runup to the July 1st deadline.” In the long run, this won’t likely create much “new-found money” for the industry, he said, as prepaid business may slow somewhat after July 1 when the tax hits.

Mike Sheedy, vice-president of operations at Pinecrest Remembrance Services Ltd. in Ottawa, said funeral homes feel it is crucial to ensure potential clients are informed that they can avoid the HST. After the GST was put in place in 1991 – with a similar exemption for prepaid funerals – some families later told his company they didn’t know about the arrangement, but would have taken advantage of it if they had been informed.

“We learned a fairly valuable lesson back then,” and funeral home operators don’t want to repeat the mistake, Mr. Sheedy said. “It is expensive to die, and to throw another 8 per cent on top of that is pretty significant.”

Pinecrest is already running radio ads that promote the savings that can be gleaned by prepaying funeral services before the HST hits in July.

“This July, the new harmonized sales tax will add 8 per cent to the cost of funeral preplanning,” a soothing announcer’s voice says over quiet piano music. “Preplanning is always a wise choice and even more so now.”

In B.C., the marketing effort is less centralized, said Justin Schultz, president of the Funeral Service Association of British Columbia.

“We have communicated [information about the tax] to our members, but have largely left the effort up to individual firms to promote it as they see fit,” he said. Many are getting the message out now, he said, through print materials, posters and brochures geared mainly to families that are already clients.

Mr. Schultz, who is also manager of the Valley View Funeral Home in Surrey, B.C., said his association has told the provincial government there are ways it could mitigate the financial impact of the HST on individuals who are bereaved.

One possibility is a tax break for the estate of the deceased person. He hopes this might be included in the next provincial budget.

Mr. Schultz said his concern is that the new tax will create a bigger burden on many families who are already facing an unexpected funeral expense.

[Globe & Mail]

The B.C. government has retreated – again – on the incoming harmonized sales tax, promising an estimated $235-million worth of rebates to public schools and hospitals.

Finance minister Colin Hansen announced the policy change yesterday, two months after he gave up $80-million worth of tax income to the new home construction sector.

At that time, he suggested the chances of further tax breaks on the HST were unlikely given the province’s record deficit. Yesterday, he said he has always intended to work out some kind of relief for the province’s publicly-funded institutions, which also includes universities and colleges.

“The reason we held off in terms of these organizations is that we seriously looked at two options,” he said. It was either a rebate scheme similar to the one for the federal Goods and Services Tax, or a direct cash transfer to supplement education, post-secondary and health care budgets. In the end, he said, the easiest move was to allow the sectors to apply for special HST rebates in conjunction with their GST rebates.

Last summer, Mr. Hansen announced that B.C. will adopt the HST in July of this year, combining the five per cent GST with the province’s seven per cent sales tax. He’s already offered rebates to municipalities and charities.

The new rebates are designed to ensure that health and education institutions won’t pay any additional tax as a result of the move to the HST, which spells higher taxes on services and some goods that are currently exempt from the provincial sales tax.

School authorities reacted with relief yesterday. Even last month, trustees wrote to Mr. Hansen warning that the tax change would add $32-million each year to education costs. “The additional impact of the HST will require even greater cuts to education services,” warned Connie Denesiuk, president of the B.C. School Trustees’ Association in a Dec. 8 letter.

“This is the certainty we’ve been looking for,” she said yesterday.

“We were unofficially told there would probably be something, but when you are drafting a budget you have to have real numbers, you can’t make mistakes or you risk having to disrupt a program half-way through.”

School boards are just starting to prepare their budgets for the school year that starts in September and even after this change, they are still facing a shortfall of about $230-million, she added.

The B.C. New Democratic Party opposition has lobbied to scrap the HST entirely, and dismissed yesterday’s rebates as a “piecemeal” effort that does won’t satisfy voters.

“The B.C. Liberals are trying to appease British Columbians with one-off rebates. But that’s just not going to cut it. The B.C. Liberals lied about the HST, and British Columbians are overwhelmingly opposed to this tax,” said New Democrat finance critic Bruce Ralston in a news release.

The B.C. Liberal party stated during the spring election campaign it was not planning to adopt the tax. After the election, in the face of collapsing revenues, Mr. Hansen said he concluded B.C. would benefit from the shift, which will bring $1.6-billion in transfers from the federal government.

Meanwhile, restaurant and bar owners are still campaigning against the tax, but Mr. Hansen maintained yesterday he is not considering any exemptions for the hospitality industry.

“They seem to have made a decision that rather than mitigate that they are embarking on a campaign to try to have the restaurant sector exempted,” Mr. Hansen said. “I’ve told them that it is technically just not possible.”

[Globe & Mail]

Former B.C. premier Bill Vander Zalm has set in motion the process for an initiative against the harmonized sales tax.

In a phone interview, Vander Zalm said that he has filed an application for an initiative with Elections B.C., and that he and other opponents of the new tax are looking at April 1 as the possible start date for collecting signatures on their petition.

“We don’t want to actually go around Fort Nelson, Fort St. John, Dawson Creek, Prince George, all of those places in the middle of winter,” Vander Zalm told the Straight lightheartedly.

“Once we get 10 percent of the registered voters in each constituency to sign the initiative petition, then it goes to the government—it goes back to Elections B.C., which then presents it to the government,” the former premier explained.

“The government has two options. They can adopt the bill, the proposed legislation that goes with the petition, which basically cancels the HST, or they can choose to go to referendum and have the people vote on whether they want the HST or don’t want the HST. They must do one or the other,” Vander Zalm added.

Elections B.C. spokesperson Don Main told the Straight that his body received Vander Zalm’s application on December 24.

Here’s how the Elections B.C. Web site explains how the initiative process works:

The Recall and Initiative Act is administered by the Chief Electoral Officer. The Act allows registered voters in British Columbia to propose new laws or changes to existing laws.

Any registered voter can apply to have a petition issued to gather support for a legislative proposal by submitting an application to the Chief Electoral Officer. A completed application consists of a fully completed and signed application form, a copy of the draft Bill, and a non-refundable $50 processing fee. The draft Bill must be on a matter within the jurisdiction of the provincial legislature and must be written in a clear and unambiguous manner. Approval in principle of an application is officially granted at the time a Notice of Petition is published in the British Columbia Gazette.

Sixty days after the notice is published in the Gazette, the Chief Electoral Officer issues an original petition signature sheet and cover sheet for each electoral district. An initiative petition must be signed within 90 days from the date on which it is issued. Signatures may be gathered by volunteer canvassers.

If more than 10% of the registered voters in each of the electoral districts of the province, who were registered to vote on the date the petition was issued, sign an initiative petition within the 90-day canvassing period, and the proponent complies with the initiative financing provisions, the Chief Electoral Officer must send a copy of the verified petition and draft Bill to the Select Standing Committee on Legislative Initiatives.

The Select Standing Committee must meet within 30 days of receipt of the petition and draft Bill. From their first meeting, the Committee has 90 days to consider the legislative proposal and either table a report recommending introduction of the draft Bill, or refer the initiative to the Chief Electoral Officer for an initiative vote.

For an initiative to be successful, the majority of registered voters in the province must vote in favour of the initiative and more than 50% of registered voters in at least two-thirds of the electoral districts in the province must vote in favour of the initiative. If successful, government must introduce the initiative Bill at the earliest practical opportunity.

[Straight.com]

VICTORIA, B.C. — B.C. Premier Gordon Campbell is sending strong signals the Winter Olympics are giving him a second political wind, dashing widespread speculation the three-term leader was considering retiring in first place after the Games.

Campbell, who turns 61 in January, says his job is only half finished and he’s planning to run for a fourth-straight term in 2013.

Opposition New Democrat Leader Carole James said she’s also planning to meet Campbell for a third election showdown in 2013.

In a year-end interview with The Canadian Press, Campbell said 2009 was a tough year despite winning a third majority term.

Campbell said the government’s plan to introduce a harmonized sales tax upset British Columbians, his popularity dropped and the government’s budget – a record B.C. deficit at $2.8 billion – was ravaged by the global financial meltdown.

“It’s been tumultuous. It’s been tough. It’s been trying in lots of ways,” the premier said.

But he’s not in the mood to quit.

“If people will give me the opportunity (to serve again,) it’s going to be their choice, not mine,” he said. “My choice is to keep doing this.”

“That’s how I feel right now,” Campbell said.

“I’ve been popular and I’ve been unpopular. It’s not a popularity contest. It’s not about the path to expediency. It’s built on a foundation of principal and saying: ‘This is what we think is best for our kids and grandkids.”‘

The HST, slated to take effect in July, joins the seven-per-cent B.C. sales tax with the five-per-cent federal Goods and Services Tax.

Campbell says the 12-per-cent value-added HST was one of those tough decisions the government made because it was convinced it will stimulate investment and business growth.

Ottawa also offered British Columbia $1.6 billion to take the deal and B.C. used $750 million in September to soften the blow of the massive deficit.

“I never thought it would be popular,” said Campbell.

Big business estimates $2 billion in tax savings, but consumers will pay extra for many items and services, and the HST has raised the ire of the restaurant and real estate industries.

Opposition New Democrat Leader Carole James said her party plans to continue its fight in the new year to dump the HST.

The New Democrats are lobbying to convince Liberal MLA’s to vote against the tax when it is introduced in the legislature, saying seven Liberals are needed to halt the HST.

“You’ll certainly see an effort on our part, and I think on British Columbians’ part, to convince the few government MLA’s to vote against the government and vote against the HST,” James said.

She said she also plans to start remaking her political image next year, hitting the road and offering British Columbians her vision of what a New Democrat government would look like as opposed to constantly focusing attacks on the Liberals.

“You’ll see us fighting hard as an Opposition in the way we need to, but you’ll also see us working hard in the second role that we have to put ideas and solutions out there to show people that there’s a different way to govern in British Columbia,” James said.

Campbell said he plans after the Olympics to refocus attention on Liberal government goals first introduced in 2005 when the B.C. economy was strong, the budget was in the black and when every shop window and construction site posted Help Wanted signs.

“My mom used to tell me ‘Gord, make sure you finish what you started out,”‘ said Campbell. “That’s the kind of person I’ve tried to be.”

He said British Columbia is only half-way through the Golden Decade set out by Campbell’s Liberals in 2005, including the decade’s promised ‘Five Great Goals.’

The goals include: making British Columbia the best educated, most literate jurisdiction on the continent; leading North America in healthy living and physical fitness; building the best system of support in Canada for persons with disabilities, special needs, children at risk and seniors; leading the world in sustainable environmental management with the best air and water quality and fisheries management; and creating more jobs per capita than anywhere else in Canada.

Some of those goals took direct hits last year, with the province losing the second-most jobs in the country, cutting budgets and posting the highest child-poverty rate in Canada for the sixth year in a row.

But Campbell said reaching those goals are his constant priorities as are building a new relationship with the province’s aboriginal people, ensuring all British Columbians can take advantage of education opportunities and finding ways to provide top-quality health care while not eating away the province’s budget.

He said he envisions British Columbia leading Canada into the Asian market place, noting that 20 per cent of the province’s lumber exports are now destined for Asia.

Copyright © 2010 The Canadian Press. All rights reserved.