Anti-HST Effort Coming to P.G.
By 250 News
Monday, March 08, 2010 10:22 AM
Prince George, B.C.- The battle by the group opposing the HST in B.C. is getting underway, and project point man former Premier Bill Vanderzalm admits it will be an uphill battle “I am aware of what’s involved here, we’ve had a good look at the legislation, and yes, I think the rules were written by a government and bureaucrats who didn’t want it to work too well.”
Speaking on the Meisner program on CFISFM this morning, Vanderzalm says the team against the HST does not have access to a voter’s list, the legislation won’t allow that to happen and they must get 10% of the number of people who were registered to vote in the last election from each constituency “So we have to get at least 15 or 20% because if we don’t get 10% in one riding we lose the whole thing.”
This effort, says Vanderzalm, is different from a regular recall process as people from all political parties are involved, “We have a cross section of political interests all supporting us in the fight against HST so that is what makes this very different.”
While there has been a great deal of attention focused on the impact of the HST on the restaurant sector, Vanderzalm says the HST will have a much broader impact “The provincial government tells us they are going to collect $2 billion dollars extra through the HST” says Vanderzalm, “ The $2 billion dollars, divided by the population of B.C., means $500 dollars from every man woman and child that they will pay annually for goods and services.”
One of the bad things about the HST says Vanderzalm, is that the government of BC is turning the province into a municipality “They are turning the authority for provincial taxation over to the Federal government “That is a big concern, especially when we are so far removed from them.” He is concerned that giving the Federal government that kind of control means B.C. loses control of the level of the tax and which items will be taxed.
Vanderzalm also worries about the development of an underground economy as he pictures plenty of work being done under the table for cash and doesn’t buy the argument that big business will be hiring more people because they are getting a tax break “The will only expand when the price of aluminium goes up or wood goes up or oil goes up, that’s when they will expand, not because they are getting a tax refund, that will simply be pocketed.”
The fight against the HST comes to Prince George this Friday night with a special meeting at UNBC. The meeting is set to start at 7 p.m. in room 7-238.
Vanderzalm says there is still a need for volunteers to help in the effort “Right now, we have 2,000 volunteers who have signed up to volunteer, but they must all send me a registered form, which I then sign as the proponent, and it goes from me to Elections B.C. and they send back tags that our volunteers can wear when they’re obtaining signatures. So I’ve got to get people to go to our website www.fighthst.com and sign in as a volunteer.”
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Posted by: He spoke on March 8 2010 3:12 PM