Campaigns hit high gear as HST referendum officially begins period

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Campaigns hit high gear as HST referendum officially begins


VICTORIA — British Columbia’s much-anticipated referendum on the harmonized sales tax officially begins in the coming week, with voters across the province expected to start receiving ballots in their mailboxes beginning Monday.

If more than 50 per cent of those who cast a ballot during the process vote ‘yes’ to extinguishing the HST, the tax will be history, and British Columbia will, after a period of transition estimated at up to 24 months, return to once again having a PST and a GST.

If more than 50 per cent say ‘no’ during the referendum, the HST remains, and government has promised the rate of the tax will be decreased two percentage points over the next three years — dropping to 10 per cent by July 1, 2014.

Voters have until this July 22 to make their decision on the tax and return their completed ballots to Elections BC.

Until that time, people can expect a near-constant stream of information and advertising from the main campaigns involved in trying to either kill or save the controversial tax.

The following are the four organizations running organized campaigns either for or against the tax:


Fight HST

www.fighthst.com

Led by former premier Bill Vander Zalm, Fight HST is the organization that last year collected enough signatures to force government to hold a referendum on the HST.

The group is the official proponent for the Yes side, and therefore has received $250,000 in public funds to mount its campaign.

Fight HST organizer and strategist, Bill Tieleman, said the organization’s main message about HST is that it needs to be extinguished because it is more expensive for families than the previous PST/GST tax regime.

“Look at what you’re likely to pay if you have to put a new roof on your house, or renovation on your home,” he said, adding the HST also means some of the more routine items like restaurant meals and haircuts are now more expensive.

“Even if those amounts are slightly reduced from seven per cent to six per cent or even five per cent, you’re still paying an extra five per cent on hundreds of goods and services you never paid provincial sales tax on before,” he added.

“We believe the amount each family will pay is far higher than the government’s claims of $350 per average family [per year], which was based on an income that was extremely low for family income.”

Tieleman said the focus for Fight HST will be on a grassroots campaign, similar to the one that successfully forced the HST referendum.

As part of the campaign, Tieleman said Fight HST has about 300 lawn signs to distribute in each riding, and that it will use its network of volunteers to help spread the anti-HST message.

Tieleman said the organization will do a limited amount of advertising on radio and in print, adding the campaign will pale in comparison to the ones supporting the HST. He said those campaigns are using government funds as well as significant corporate donations to mount a widespread advertising air war.

“We’re in a classic David versus Goliath battle where we’re going to be outspent probably 70 or 80 to 1,” he said.

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“We’re being really careful with our advertising because we’ve only got one stone for the slingshot.”

Tieleman said his group is powered by volunteers and lacks the kind of sophisticated fundraising effort needed to bring in large sums of money, and therefore will likely not spend more than the $250,000 in public funds.

“There’s an enormous amount of money and energy being put into the No side to keep the HST,” he said.

“We’re not going to be able to match that,” he added.

“We just have to put all our faith in people power.”


Smart Tax Alliance

http://hstjobs.ca/

The Smart Tax Alliance is a collection of 43 B.C. business and industry groups brought together for the sole purpose of supporting the HST, and encouraging people to vote ‘no’ in the referendum.

The group is the official proponent for the No side, and therefore has received $250,000 in public funds to mount its campaign.

It has also said it is doing fundraising to support its efforts, but has not disclosed how much it has taken in so far.

The group has created numerous videos, has produced hundreds of lawn signs and has embarked on a telephone campaign to help identify those inclined to vote in favour of the HST.

Peter Leitch, president of North Shore Studios and Mammoth Studios, and a member of the alliance and one of its spokesmen, said keeping the tax is essential for B.C. to retain its competitive edge.

“It’s a much simpler system for businesses in British Columbia — 98 per cent of which are small businesses — and it’s a job creator. It cuts the costs of companies and so they can make more investments and hire more employees,” he said in an interview.

“To go back to the PST and GST and pay that $1.6 billion back and to hire 300 tax collectors [to administer the PST], it just doesn’t make any sense.”

(If B.C. cancels the HST, it will be required to repay $1.6 billion to Ottawa that it received as an incentive to adopt the tax. )

Leitch said the changes recently announced by government — to drop the HST rate two points by 2014 — will make the tax more fair for everyone.

“Once it gets down to 10 per cent, every family on average is going to save $120, and lower-income families are going to save more,” he said, adding he believes the raw facts should be enough to persuade people.

“This is a discussion about tax policy. What’s the best tax policy for the province? It’s too bad it’s gone so political, but I think if people look at the issue we’re looking at — that the referendum is all about — they will recognize the HST is a much better way to go.”

Leitch said his organization will continue with advertising and other activities, but one of the most important focuses will be getting employers to communicate directly with their employees.

“We’re having companies talk to their employees about the benefits to their jobs and creating jobs, and creating good-paying jobs,” he said.

“I think the most important thing employers and businesses can do is just go talk to the people on the floor and make sure they understand the differences in tax policy, because that’s again what this is all about.”


New Democratic Party

www.bcndp.ca

New Democratic Party leader Adrian Dix on Tuesday launched his official campaign to encourage British Columbians to scrap the HST.

“The HST is, and continues to be, a tax shift onto working families,” said Dix during a tour stop in Victoria on Wednesday, where he visited a local coffee shop.

“I’m campaigning, as people are across B.C., to ensure that the HST goes, and that on a whole series of items — like preventive health, like theatre tickets, like restaurant meals, like kids’ sports camps, like many other things — that we reduce this tax from seven to zero and reinstitute some fairness in our tax system,” he told reporters.

“We had the PST for 60 years. It’s funded and helped to fund the development of a social service system that often works well for British Columbians,” he said, noting the economy grew dramatically between the late 1940s and today.

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Dix said he and his party have opposed the HST since it was announced, and as the official Opposition, made the tax a major theme during the recently concluded spring session of the legislature.

In materials handed out at the event, Dix said he believes the government has deliberately downplayed the impact of the HST on families.

“A two-income family with both adults making $50,000 each are paying over $1,000 more per year under the HST,” he said in a news release, which used as its source an analysis assembled in June 2010 by Statistics Canada.

Dix did not say how much he planned to spend on his anti-HST tour, but characterized it as very modest, especially compared to the No side that is campaigning in favour of the HST.

“I know many businesses are being asked as we speak to give $50,000, $100,000, $150,000 in support of that campaign,” he said.

“My job is just to go around and talk to people, knock on doors and to put forward the very compelling case that we should return to the PST and that we should get rid of the HST.”

Dix criticized the government for its so-called Stickman advertising campaign, which was billed as neutral, but that he said has become very partisan.

“It’s embarrassing how much partisan advertising the B.C. Liberals are doing with public funds,” he said, pointing to the $5 million the government has said it plans to spend on the campaign.

“When you consider all the things that they’re not supporting – they clawed back gaming money from charitable groups, including arts groups, they’re closing down group homes – it’s a little much for them to use public money in that way.”

Dix has not yet announced future stops on his tour but said he and all his 33 MLAs will work as hard as possible to spread their message on the tax.


B.C. Liberal government

www.hstinbc.ca

The B.C. Liberal government — which implemented the HST on July 1, 2010 — is running a $5-million advertising campaign to inform British Columbians about the tax before people cast their ballots.

The Stickman campaign runs in numerous mediums and uses a simple stick character to highlight different elements of the tax.

Critics have attacked the campaign for being partisan, but Finance Minister Kevin Falcon says the ads carry tag lines such as “decide for yourself,” and are meant to encourage people to simply get more information.

“People can judge the ads however they wish to judge them but I think that at the end of the day they are factual, informative and will at least have people getting some information,” he said.

The $5 million is part of about $7 million the government will spend on informing people about the HST.

The total includes $200,000 on a series of HST telephone town hall meetings hosted by Falcon and other ministers; $500,000 toward both the pro-HST and anti-HST campaigns; $500,000 for a series of public dialogues; and $700,000 to send a voter’s guide to every home in British Columbia.

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Falcon said he will also be talking to people as much as possible to highlight the key issues facing the province.

“My focus will just be making sure the public is informed. Trying to answer questions,” he said.

“I think the public wants facts, they want information and they don’t want all of that political stuff.”

While the official government campaign is meant to be informational, members of the B.C. Liberal caucus are also speaking out in favour of the tax, saying it is important for the province’s future.

Recently, Premier Christy Clark adopted the slogan “shelve the 12” — a pro-HST reference that pits the 12-per-cent PST/GST against what the government has said will ultimately become a 10-per-cent HST,

This week, Falcon also used his job as finance minister to highlight what he said is a concern coming from investors and other keen watchers of what is going on in British Columbia.

“I am actually going to be heading off to New York and to Toronto to meet with investor groups and rating agencies following up on staff discussions that have taken place with the rating agencies who have concerns about what the budget impacts are of going back to PST/GST,” he said.

“We are talking at the end of the day about a $3-billion negative fiscal impact to our budgets, by just making the decision to go back to the higher 12-per-cent PST/GST,” he added.

“I think it underscores that this is really a very serious issue.”

How to get your ballot:

Ballots will be mailed to all 3.05 million registered voters in the province with many starting to arrive on doorsteps Monday.

Metro Vancouver and Fraser Valley residents will be in the second wave of mailings and can expect delivery between June 20 and 24. Other parts of the province are expected to receive ballots throughout the coming week. Elections BC asks anyone who does not receive a voting package by June 24 to call 1-800-661-8683 so one can be sent in time for the voting deadline.

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How to cast your vote:

Each voting package includes three envelopes, a ballot and a set of instructions for voting.

1. To vote, people must first answer ‘yes’ or ‘no’ to the referendum question by placing either an X or a check next to the corresponding word on the ballot.

2. The ballot must be separated from the instruction sheet and, once complete, placed into a secrecy envelope that comes with the package.

3. The secrecy envelope is then sealed and placed into the certification envelope, also included in the package. This certification envelope is meant to confirm the voter’s identity, while keeping the voting intention of each person secret. Voters are required to sign the certification envelope and fill in their birthdate. Voters are also asked to provide a phone number, which may be used in a random followup survey to help certify the integrity of the vote. After information on the certification envelope is confirmed, it is separated from the secrecy envelope.

4. When sealed and completed, the certification envelope is then placed into a yellow ballot package, which has the return address for Elections BC. The yellow envelope can be mailed without a stamp, or dropped off at various locations across the province.

The Question:

The referendum question is as follows: Are you in favour of extinguishing the HST (Harmonized Sales Tax) and reinstating the PST (Provincial Sales Tax) in conjunction with the GST (Goods and Services Tax)?

An answer of ‘Yes’ means a voter wants the HST repealed, and ‘No’ means the voter wants it to remain in place.

The Result:

Elections BC says it will release the result of the referendum in mid-to-late August.

For more information: http://www.elections.bc.ca/index ... nitiative/hst-2011/


NDP leader Adrian Dix holds talks to the media at an event at the Spiral Cafe as part of his campaign against the HST in Victoria, B.C. June 8, 2011