B.C. unveils HST referendum question

The B.C. government has released a draft version of the question to be asked in the provincewide referendumon the harmonized sales tax.

The proposed questionis: "Are you in favour of extinguishing the HST and reinstating the PST in conjunction with the GSTyes or no?"

The draftwas deliveredby B.C.chief electoral officer Craig James to Attorney General Mike de Jong Wednesday afternoon.

The wording of the questionwill be debated in the provincial legislaturein the spring, but James will have the final say on how the question for the Sept. 24, 2011, referendum reads,de Jong said.

James said Wednesday he's willing to listen to other arguments, but thinks he has written the question correctly.

"I'm an open-minded person." he said. "I may have missed something in designing this question and if members of the legislative assembly have something new to offer that I can consider, I might incorporate it, but I would be reluctant to do so. I would have to be persuaded."

Opinions from other stakeholders varied.

Bill Tieleman, one of the key strategists of the Fight HST campaign, said the question is missingany reference to an HSTrefund.

"What happened to the refund question?" said Tieleman.

He said thathundreds of thousands ofpeople signed a petition that called both forgetting rid of the HST and getting a refund for the HST they had paid.

Both B.C. Finance Minister Colin Hansen and NDP finance critic Bruce Ralston said they believethe question is clear and straightforward.

An all-party legislative committee voted unanimously in Septemberto put the tax to a provincewide vote after more than 500,000 British Columbians signed a petition to repeal the tax.

According to B.C.'sInitiatives Act, a referendum like the one on the HST is not binding on the government.

But Premier Gordon Campbell said the government would drop the unpopular tax if a simple majority votes against it in the referendum.

The furor over the introduction of the HST forced Campbell to announce his resignation last week, although he will stay on until the B.C. Liberals choose a new leader.

The government plans to spend the next year selling the public on the HST, and Hansen acknowledged the leadership race will likely factor into that debate, as potential leadership candidates carve out their own opinions on the tax.

However, Hansen said expected whoever takes over the premier's office to allow the referendum to run its course.