HST Battle News...Next Steps at the BC Legislature

On Friday, the BC Supreme Court gave its' official blessing to sending the HST Initiative Petition to the Legislature & the Standing Committee on Legislative Initiatives. You can read the Court's decision here

Also - the Acting Chief Electoral Officer of Elections BC (Craig James) will be formally submitting the following letter & HST Initiative Petition to the Standing Committee on Legislative Initiatives on Monday, August 23rd as follows:

"Pursuant to section 10 of the Recall and Initiative Act (Act), I have now determined that an initiative petition issued to William Vander Zalm on Tuesday, April 6, 2010 has met the requirements of s. 7 of the Act.

I have further determined that the proponent, Mr. Vander Zalm, has complied with Part 4 of the Act.

Accordingly, as mandated by the Act, I am enclosing a copy of the petition and draft Bill”

The next step now is for the Select Standing Committee on Legislative Initiatives to formally meet to consider the Petition and Mr. James's letter. They have 30 days to meet, which means the Standing Committee must assemble not later than September 23rd and make a recommendation to the BC Legislature not later than December 23rd to introduce the HST Extenguishment Act or refer the HST Initiative Petition back to Elections BC for the conduct of a Province-wide Referendum on September 24th, 2011.

Members of the Select Standing Committee on Legislative Initiatives (10 MLA's) are as follows:

BC Liberals:

Dr. Terry Lake (Standing Committee Convener) - Kamloops-North-Thompson
Eric Foster - Vernon-Monashee
Dave Hayer - Surrey-Tynehead (Parliamentary Secretary for Multiculturism)
Richard Lee - Burnaby-North
Pat Pimm - Peace River North
John Slater - Boundary-Similkameen (Parliamentary Secretary for Water Supply and Allocation)

BC NDP:

Mike Farnworth (NDP House Leader & Opposition Critic for Public Safety) - Port Coquitlam
Jenny Kwan (Opposition Critic for Small Business)- Vancouver-Mount Pleasant
Katrine Conroy - Kootenay-West
Rob Fleming (Opposition Critic for the Environment) - Victoria-Swan Lake

So - BC Politics will certainly stay exciting to watch this fall including recall campaigns starting as soon as November 15th, 2010