BC Conservaties Response to Finance minister Colin Hansen

May 13, 2010 Response to Colin Hansen

Finance Minister Colin Hansen says that he's upset Elections BC
"decided it would be inappropriate" for the government to send out
taxpayer-funded mail outs to BC residents at the same time that the
petition initiative is underway in this province. This sounds as 
though Elections BC has made a political decision, when it hasn't. All 
it is doing is following the letter of law.



A few facts for the Finance Minister would be appropriate here, so 
that he does not wrongly inform British Columbians. In the letter sent
 to the government by BC’s deputy chief electoral officer Linda
 Johnson, she explained clearly: 

“In order to ensure compliance with the Recall and Initiative Act, it 
is imperative that government advertising does not indirectly promote 
or oppose an initiative petition or the associated draft bill in any
way unless government first registers as an initiative advertising
 sponsor and complies with the $5,000 advertising limit.”



Elections BC is merely complying with the letter of the law of the
Recall and Initiative Act, by ensuring the government does not use
taxpayer money to fund misinformation during a time that the petition
 initiative is underway in this province. Nor has the government chosen
 to register itself as an initiative advertising sponsor, though
 documentation proves they were informed by Elections BC of their
 obligation to do so. 



It's also a little bit troubling that the government chose this moment 
to attempt to explain the benefits of the HST, and not during the past 
year that they've had ample time for. Indeed, ideally they would have
 explained the benefit of the HST during the election last year. 
Instead, they are on record as having stated they had no interest in 
pursuing harmonization and that it would compromise their ability to
 set the provincial tax rate. 



Despite the rather lengthy explanation by the Finance Minister in his
 op-ed that ending the PST will cut expenditures for businesses, the 
bottom line is that the HST is being seen for what it is: a $1.8
 billion tax shift from businesses to the consumer. Their own former 
Finance Minister, Carole Taylor, is on record as saying the same 
thing.



The truth is that the people of British Columbia may come to accept
 the HST, but that decision should be made by the people of this 
province, and not the Liberal government. That's why this current 
petition initiative, which has already gathered the minimum 300,000
 signatures in less than one third of the allotted time given by 
Elections BC, is so important to be left unhindered.



Because the BC Liberals very deceitfully did not give voters the
 opportunity to choose in the election last May, they are being given 
that opportunity now to recall the legislation. That's how the rules
 work, and that's how a democracy works. It may not please the Finance
Minister, but the rules were not written for the Finance Minister.



The BC Conservative Party fully endorses this petition initiative
and will abide by the democratic will of the people of this province.
We believe that the people of BC are able to make informed decisions
on the HST without the need for a $2-million taxpayer-funded campaign
by the Liberal government to explain it to them.

And finally, we fully expect and understand that the people of this
 province will express their dissatisfaction with the sneaky attempt to
enact "taxation without representation" by punishing them in a 
democratic referendum.

Dean Skoreyko 
BC Conservative Party