HST in BC in doubt?
By Mike Summers
@BCRMike (355)
Vanderhoof, British Columbia
April 21, 2010 7:22am CST
The HST, which is the Harmonized Sales Tax, is in jeopardy tonight.
BC is the only jurisdiction in Canada with Recall and Initiative legislation.
And when the provincial New Democratic Party (NDP) formed government under Mike Harcourt years ago found themselves in a strange predicament.
The out going Premier of the province, Bill Vander Zalm, included two questions on the ballot of the provincial general election.
Do you want recall legislation?
Do you want initiative legislation?
They were passed by an 80% margin. The NDP being the party that has democracy only in it's name, fiddled with it for four long years, but finally came up with something the would satisfy the requirements of the law without making it possible to do.
Recall requires that 40% of the VOTERS LIST at the last election, to sign to be successful.
Initiative require the 10% of the constituencies sign their names. At the time, there was 79 constituencies. Now there are 85 after redistribution.
Virtually impossible. No jurisdiction has it harder to achieve. Nowhere.
But something happened along the way. The laws were never amended to make then easier, by either ruling party. They developed amnesia and never carried out their promise.
Enter Gordon Campbell.
His is a tenure built on lies and betrayal. He sold the BC Rail to now American controlled CN Rail on a 999 year lease. But dammit! We still own the right of ways...
The trade and convention center. Budgeted at some $500 million dollars, it ballooned up to $900 million.
The province has been going though the same hard times as everyone else. Budget deficit is pegged at $459 Million, but no more than that said our premier during the election.
After the election, 2 billion dollars.
The roof for BC Place needs to be replaced. It is currently inflatable and is in need of a repair. God forbid that you go with a roof you can afford in hard times, no, we get a retractable roof for cost projected at another 1/2 billion dollars. Watch that go all out the window.
Then, there is the HST. During the election, "It's not on the radar! We have no plans to implement IT."
THREE DAYS after the election, suddenly it appears. Uh huh... sure Gord. We believe you...
Polls showing 80-90% are against this tax. For a population of only 4.1 million, this works out to a shift of $1.9 BILLION dollars onto already cash strapped citizens. Nearly $500 per person if you can believe the government's figures. They have historically low balled their numbers.
Now, Premier Gordon Campbell has done what no other Premier has been able to do.
An initiative has been launched by that same Bill Vander Zalm. And he WILL get the numbers and be the first proponent to lead a successful try at this. we are gathering signatures now and are only limited in our efforts by Election BC because they are not processing canvasser applications fast enough.
Now the question is this.
If the BC Liberal caucus lynches Gordon Campbell, and withdraws the agreement before the July 1 start date, will it still be good for the Liberals?
Since there is nothing binding on the government to honour this referendum try, but if this goes through, will they be suicidal and ignore the people's wishes?
My gut feeling is they will scrap the HST and take their lumps. But I have been wrong before.
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