B.C. HST petition misleading, court hears

A coalition of business groups has wrapped up its arguments in B.C. Supreme Court in an effort to force the provincial government to ignore the 700,000-name anti-HST petition.

Lawyer Peter Gall told the Vancouver court the petition treads on federal jurisdiction and is also misleading.

People who signed the petition may mistakenly believe that if the initiative succeeded, the harmonized sales tax would be immediately scrapped, Gall said.

Judge Robert Bauman reserved his decision on the matter, along with his decision on a counter-challenge by petition leader Bill Vander Zalm that was heard earlier this week seeking to declare the tax unconstitutional.

Lawyer Joe Arvay argued that to comply with the constitution, the HST should have been debated by the B.C. legislature, but instead was imposed through an order-in-council by the provincial cabinet.

Outside court, NDP critic Mike Farnworth said he disagrees with the business groups and said the legislature has supremacy on the issue.

Federal political implications

Vander Zalm said no matter what the court rules, the decision will be made in the court of public opinion.

In an interview later Wednesday on CBC News Network's Power & Politics with Evan Solomon, Vander Zalm said that if the court decides the HST is in federal jurisdiction, there could be a political price to pay for the national Conservative Party.

"The NDP, in the next federal election, will undoubtedly play this," Vander Zalm said. "They'll say, 'Look, it's, according to the courts, the Conservatives that brought you the HST.' So, we can't ignore it federally. It will be an issue … I think [Prime Minister Stephen Harper] knows that."

The petition was verified by Elections BC last week as meeting the standard required for it to be passed for consideration by a committee of the B.C. legislature.

But B.C.'s chief electoral officer said he would not forward the petition to the committee until the court decides on the petition's constitutionality.