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- Tax talk
- Mailed it yet?
- Provincial deficit not as large as projected
- Provincial election? Maybe not, MLA says
- Tourism partners don't like HST
- Liberals say HST goes to 10 per cent by 2014
- HST forum next week
- By-election not great for either Party, MLA says
- MLA Report
- Legislature reconvenes
- Ministers to talk HST at telephone town halls
- Educate yourself on the HST, local Liberal says
- Vast majority want HST gone, MLA says
- Put as back to work, MLA says
- Clark defeats Falcon
- Christy Clark aims to solve political disconnect
- HST will create havoc, says NDP critic
- Closure invoked on HST
- The HST campaign in Kimberley
- 700 sign anti-HST petition at rally
- Anti-HST petition a misinformation drive, MLA says
- Fight the HST town hall rally Saturday
Many British Columbians have the date June 24, 2011 fixed in their mind as referendum day on the HST. However, in actual fact, that is only the day by which most B.C. residents will have received their ballot.
Elections BC will begin mailing referendum ballots to registered voters June 13. The majority of registered voters will receive their ballots by June 24. Unregistered voters have until July 8 to request a ballot from Elections BC. Completed ballots must be received by (not sent to) Elections BC or in person at a Service BC centre by 4:30 p.m. (local time) July 22. Final results of the vote are expected in August.
And that's a shame, says Columbia River Revelstoke MLA Norm Macdonald, because it just means more uncertainty for British Columbians.
"Most people think that there will be a decision on June 24. In fact it will be August. And the next batch of money from the federal government, about a half billion, comes on July 1. So you stretch it out over a huge period of time, drift into August. Technically it's only been moved up a month from the original date."
Macdonald spoke in the legislature this week about the HST, citing the situation in Kimberley, where realtors are seeing the HST affect condo sales, which must now include the tax.
"Resort communities are competing with real estate markets in Alberta and the United States where tax rates are much lower," Macdonald said.
"Potential recreational real estate buyers are taking a pass on buying in British Columbia because of the uncertainty about the tax. Real estate developers and realtors are left with product that they can't sell unless they are willing to pay the HST for the buyer, a $36,000 cost on a $300,000 unit.
"British Columbians been told that the HST will result in more jobs and more economic activity but this situation totally refutes that claim.
"First, the BC Liberals implemented this tax in a thoughtless and duplicitous way, and now they are dithering and delaying on how the decision on the tax will be made. It continues to show just how little the BC Liberals care about how their policies affect us here in Columbia River - Revelstoke."
