As momentum builds for the petition against the harmonized sales tax, attention will eventually shift to a little-known and never-used committee of the B.C. legislature. The select standing committee on legislative initiatives was created via the provincial law that established B.C.'s unique-to-Canada procedures for recall and initiative back in 1994. The purpose of the committee is to "consider" legislative initiatives submitted to it by public petition. But because none of the previous half-dozen initiative petitions succeeded in gathering the required-by-law number of signatures, the committee has had nothing to consider for going on 16 years.The legislative assembly website indicates the committee has met precisely once -- March 11, 2004 -- and then only for a five-minute organizational meeting before adjourning to wait for petitions that never arrived. But all that is likely to change come summer, given the growing likelihood of success for the petition in support of a draft bill to repeal the HST and restore the provincial sales tax.
Presuming no technical glitches, the petition will be submitted no later than July 5 and declared valid by Elections BC no later than the Aug. 16 deadline for final verification. The next step in the process is then set out in legislation: "The chief electoral officer must send a copy of the petition and draft bill to the select standing committee on legislative initiatives. The committee must, within 30 days, meet to consider the initiative petition and draft bill."The membership of the committee was determined at the outset of the current legislature session, before the anti-HST petition was even certified.
But the six Liberals named must already be feeling some pressure because the petition has been remarkably successful in their home constituencies. The government-designated convener-cum-chair is Liberal MLA Terry Lake. As of Monday the signature count in his Kamloops-North Thompson riding was reported to be 10,532, the equivalent of 28 per cent of the names on the voters list when only 10 per cent is required for the petition to be validated in a particular constituency. The other five Liberals on the committee have cause for concern to varying degrees. John Slater, Boundary-Similkameen: 10,216 signatures, the equivalent of 36 per cent of the voters list. Pat Pimm, Peace River North, 6,925 signatures or 30 per cent. Eric Foster, 
Vernon-Monashee, 9,518 or 21 per cent. Dave Hayer, Surrey-Tynehead, 3,752 or 11 per cent. Richard Lee, Burnaby North, 3,524 or nine per cent.To be sure, the four New Democrats named to the committee -- MLAs Mike Farnworth, Katrine Conroy, Jenny Kwan and Rob Fleming -- are scarcely disinterested bystanders. Farnworth, Conroy and Kwan are all registered as official canvassers in the signature-gathering army led by former premier Bill Vander Zalm.
If the committee is pressed into action later this year, it could be fun listening to members argue who has the greater conflict of interest. Those whose government provoked the petition? Or those who helped put the signature drive over the top? Members will doubtless find other things to argue about as well in the 90 days allowed for the committee to "consider the petition."They aren't allowed to rewrite the proposed initiative to extinguish the harmonized sales tax. But in the course of considering the contents, they would have the leeway to hold hearings, call witnesses and debate the implications. For instance, the preamble to the bill accompanying the HST petition flatly declares the HST to be "unconstitutional." Really? Can provincial petitions, however widely supported, declare taxes unconstitutional? It would be interesting to hear what some experts might say about the legality of that part of the measure.
The government majority on the committee might seek public input on the fate of the $1.6 billion provided by Ottawa in "transition funding" for the HST. If the tax were cancelled, how should the province make up the difference? Cut spending? Raise other taxes? Let the deficit rise onward and upwards? Not to say the government would go that route. Only that the initiative legislation would allow the Liberals to string out the process via the committee, the option of a referendum in the fall of 2011, and other stalling tactics, for up to two years. Time enough for the economy to turn around, for public anger to cool, and for the government to announce a cut in the provincial share of the harmonized sales tax, as the agreement with Ottawa allows, effective July 1, 2012.
Call it the only realistic hope for the B.C. Liberals to outlast the groundswell against them. But do they have that amount of time? Not likely. Not with the anti-HST campaigners threatening recall, as soon as the law allows it, starting Nov. 15. There are ways for the government to try to diminish the threat of recall. But that is a topic for another day. However in my view, the time for easy outs on the HST file is long past. The remaining options would each involve considerable risks for a government that is already in deep trouble and sinking deeper.
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