HST will soon have its day
Get ready for it. The pro-HST spending splurge by the provincial government is about to begin.
Finance minister Kevin Falcon recently announced the government will be spending $1.7 million of your money over the next couple of months on HST information and that doesn’t even include a taxpayer- funded advertising campaign, the cost of which still hasn’t been worked out.
Of that $1.7 million, $250,000 is for the anti-HST side. So much for Premier Clark’s promise in February committing to “equal funding to both sides of the question.”
Then there is the third party spending. There will be no limit on that spending according to the rules set out by Clark’s government. The big winners will be pro-HST groups like the Independent Contractors and Business Association and the industry-funded Coast Forest Products Association. They are part of same set of groups that went to court last July to try to prevent the HST initiative from seeing the light of day.
That didn’t work out very well. The courts rejected their arguments and the anti-HST petition that had gathered more than 700,000 signatures was allowed to stand. The court case identified the groups had donated more than $160,000 to the BC Liberal Party. I suppose by going to court they were just trying to get value for their money since the government had botched the job of delivering the HST.
Finally those who signed the HST petition will get a chance to vote on the tax. This was something citizens were unable to do in the May 2009 provincial election because the current government said they were not contemplating bringing it in, then quickly reversed themselves after getting elected.
Premier Clark said at her swearing in “we’re going to have a referendum on June 24.” She already broke that promise as she chose a mail-in ballot system where the results won’t be known until August. So much for moving up the former Sept. 24 referendum date to provide certainty more quickly for businesses – the system she has chosen will only mean getting an answer just a few weeks ahead of the original schedule. Another broken commitment on her behalf.
It’s time to have your say on the HST – make sure to look for your ballot in the mail beginning mid-June, and in the meantime try to survive the information onslaught.