Foster Still Undecided About Petition

Peter McIntyre Wednesday, 08 September 2010 15:46 107.5 KISSFM

The committee deciding the fate of the HST may be leaning towards a referendum. The committee ended its meeting without a decision today, but its Liberal chairman Terry Lake of Kamloops says the referendum option would clarify how B-C residents feel. Lake says the anti-H-S-T petition asking for the tax to be repealed has the signatures of 18.6 per cent of British Columbians and they want to know how more people feel. However, Vernon Liberal MLA and committee member Eric Foster (pictured) says he's still undecided on the best route, and has questions about what a referendum would cost. He tells KISS FM, "I've heard numbers anywhere from a couple of million, to up to 30 million. What kind of a price do you put on democracy? Money is certainly an issue. We've got to know how much it's going to cost us." The committee will get more details from BC's Chief Electoral Officer when they meet again Monday.

Fight H-S-T organizer Chris Delaney was disappointed. "This is a joke. It's a disaster. The Liberals are obviously going to go to an initiative vote. That's what they want to do. They're setting the tables for that, and that means recalls in November." Delaney wants to see the issue put to a free vote in the legislature.