Vernon-Monashee MLA Eric Foster insists there was no choice but to go to referendum on the HST. On Monday, the select standing committee on legislative initiatives decided to hold a provincewide vote on the harmonized sales tax in September 2011, instead of the issue going back to the Legislature. “Eighteen or 20 per cent of the people signed a petition (opposing the HST) and I want to hear from the other 80 per cent,” said Foster, a committee member. “The people in favour of it will get a chance to vote for it now.” Foster denies the Liberals want to delay the issue in the hope the HST controversy will disappear. “If you look at the number of people who signed the petition, the issue won’t die and go away,” he said, adding that the government won’t step up the public relations machine just to convince voters the HST is positive. “We will try and make sure people have the facts but the people opposed will crank up their’s too.”
Legislation dictates the timeline for the referendum and it also states that the proposal to overturn the tax would require approval from 50 per cent of all voters on the 2009 list and a majority in 60 per cent of constituencies. Premier Gordon Campbell has stated he will accept a simple majority outcome. “If people vote not to have an HST, we won’t have one,’ said Foster. Despite Campbell’s comments that he will accept the referendum results, Fight HST, which organized the petition campaign, is demanding the legislation be changed so the vote is binding. “First, as much as we welcome this change of heart, it is not his decision to make. He must reconvene the legislature and amend the Initiative Act to allow for a truly democratic referendum that is binding and requires a simple majority vote, since the current legislation does not allow for that,” said Bill Vander Zalm, Fight HST leader, in a release.
The group is still threatening to recall Liberal MLAs. “We have finalized a strategy for recall that will be unveiled next week, depending on whether the government agrees to legislate a binding referendum with a simple majority,” Chris Delaney, a petition organizer, told The Morning Star. Foster, who is on the list of possible targets for recall, admits he is concerned about his political future but he stands by his decision on referendum. “To threaten recall when you are giving everyone a chance to vote, I find that interesting,” he said.
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Morning Star Editorial Liberals hope voters forget
MLA Eric Foster tries to portray the Liberal government as the great defender of democracy but it’s all a diversion. Instead of wanting to ensure a voice for all British Columbians, the government is hoping the entire debate surrounding the harmonized sales tax will slip off the radar between now and September 2011’s referendum — that the public will become complacent and forget about the questionable actions prior to the tax coming into force. The coming year will also give the government considerable time to step up the pro-HST machine. Millions in taxpayers’ dollars will be spent trying to convince them that they made a mistake in signing the anti-HST petition and the government knows best. Premier Gordon Campbell promises that he will accept a simple majority result from the referendum, but that goes against the legislation which says such a process isn’t binding and a “double majority” vote. If Campbell truly wants to do the right thing, he will initiate immediate changes to the legislation so it reflects a simple majority and a binding outcome. He should also insist that a referendum is held sooner than later. By delaying a decision on the HST for a year, the Liberals could also help create continuous political turmoil. If Bill Vander Zalm initiates recall of MLAs, the government will be more focused on trying to preserve itself than running the province. What would have been best is to resolve the debate with a vote in the Legislature, but instead, the Liberals want to avoid the issue for a year.
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