British Columbia voters dump harmonized sales tax: referendum results
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VICTORIA - British Columbians have voted to dump the HST.
The tax has been killed with 54.73 per cent of voters turning it down, forcing the provincial government to revert to the provincial sales tax and to plug what it has predicted will be a gaping hole in its budget.
Reaction began flowing in immediately after the long-awaited results came in. Voting in the mail-in referendum closed Aug. 5.
The Canadian Taxpayers Federation called the defeat good for democracy, but bad for the economy.
The B.C. Federation of Labour said the result is a "victory for common sense and working families."
The fledgling B.C. Conservatives, whose leader had originally supported the HST, called the defeat of the tax a failure on the part of the B.C. Liberals to convince people it was in their best interest.
Finance Minister Kevin Falcon has said the B.C. government would be looking at a $3 billion hit — including repaying Ottawa the incentive money it forwarded to implement the tax — if voters decided to get rid of the HST.
The net impact of a dropped tax would be an immediate increase in next year's projected budget deficit to $2.56 billion from $925 million, he said.
That would inevitably mean cuts to government programs and a prolonged period of provincial deficits.
Earlier this week for the first time, Premier Christy Clark acknowledged her government had a "Plan B" in case the tax was defeated.
"We've done a lot of thinking about our Plan B, and we've given it a great deal of effort, knowing that it may not be necessary but it's better to be prepared than not,'' Clark said.
"I know what Plan B will look like. If the HST is rejected, we're just going to get to work. We'll just roll up our sleeves and get down to work.''
She didn't provide any details of the plan.
More than 1.6 million people sent their HST referendum ballots back to Elections BC during the almost-eight-week voting period.
That represents just over half the number of people who were eligible to vote and amounts to almost as many British Columbians who voted in the last provincial election.
The turnout for the referendum is considered particularly remarkable given that ballots were mailed in during the summer and with a postal strike getting in the way.
The provincial government had said keeping the harmonized sales tax was crucial to the province's economic future.
Clark had moved to make the tax more palatable by saying she would lower the HST to 10 per cent from 12 per cent by 2014.
"The HST vote proves how powerful direct democracy really is," said Jordan Bateman, B.C. director of the Canadian Taxpayers' Federation.
"The sad thing is that had the government engaged taxpayers in the first place and asked for their approval for a reduced, 10 per cent HST before unilaterally enacting a 12-per-cent HST, taxpayers, businesses and the economy would all be better off today."
Jim Sinclair, president of the B.C. Federation of Labour, said the HST represented an unfair tax shift of $2 billion from large corporations to B.C. families.
"In the end, common sense and the desire for fair taxes prevailed."
Some thoughts to ponder or draw upon
You can draw the curtains & you can draw a card,
You can draw a picture & be avant-garde,
You can draw conclusions, but give them forethought,
You can draw your arrow, but you’d best mark your shot,
You can draw a deep breath & try to understand,
If the time is right to draw a line in the sand,
You can draw a bath if you need to relax,
& you can draw on luck, but you must pay the tax,
You can draw a deed, but the fine print you must read,
& if you draw first blood, then with caution proceed,
You can draw water from a well & draw on your brawn,
& be kind to the people, who are shy & withdrawn,
So may all your drawings bring you pleasing results,
As it’s never wise or advantageous to keep drawing insults.
:) :) :) :)