Decision on B.C. anti-HST petition expected

Organizers of the Fight HST campaign in B.C. are expected to learn Wednesday whether they gathered enough signatures on a petition opposing the tax.

A campaign led by former premier Bill Vander Zalm launched a provincewide petition earlier this year, and organizers say they collected more than 700,000 names before turning in the document.

Elections BC has spent the past six weeks verifying whether the petition garnered valid signatures from at least 10 per cent of voters in each of the province's 85 ridings.

However, the provincial agency will not announce the results directly to the public.

Instead, the agency is leaving it up to the petition organizers to declare whether they've won or lost their fight to force the issue back to the legislature.

Vander Zalm said he's puzzled as to why the agency is leaving it up to him to make the announcement.

"I don't know," he said. "I find it very strange.

"They're a public body. They spend public money. They've spent a lot of time. It's the biggest project they've done and they should be making it all public for the whole world to hear — but they've decided otherwise."

The B.C. legislature passed the HST bill at the end of March and the legislation came into effect July 1. It blended the seven per cent provincial sales tax with the five per cent federal goods and services tax.

Opponents argue British Columbians will pay more under the HST because the new 12 per cent tax is applied to many items and services that previously were subject only to the GST.

If Elections BC confirms the petition is valid, a committee of the legislature will decide to either put the issue to a vote in the house or send it to a non-binding plebiscite next year.

Vander Zalm said Fight HST members are already planning to put the heat on Liberal MLAs by recalling them if they don't repeal the harmonized sales tax.

MLA Blair Lekstrom left the Liberal Party in June because of public opposition to the tax.