Liberal Leader Andrew Wilkinson vowed Monday to scrap the PST for one year, if his party formed government, and then reintroduce it in the second year at three per cent.
The PST is currently seven per cent on most goods and services.
Wilkinson made the announcement in Richmond Monday, along with the party's four Richmond candidates, including Alexa Loo, the Olympic athlete and two-term richmond city councillor, who is running for the Liberals in Richmond South Centre.
"We need bold action," Wilkinson said. "So a BC Liberal government will eliminate the provincial sales tax for a full year. In the second year, we'll reduce it to three per cent. Because this will give people a spring in their step."
Scrapping the tax would cost the provincial government $7 billion in the first year. The BC government is already running a major deficit, due to the pandemic.
Wilkinson confirmed his government would resort to deficit spending to pay for the tax cut, which means his plan would dramatically increase the provincial deficit.
"Everyone knows that we're in a big economic crisis," Wilkinson said. "And this is not a time to worry about the details so much as to get people back to work, and one of the ways to get people back to work is to stimulate the economy by reducing taxes.
"Every goverment in the Western world is anticipating deficit spending for the next few years," he said.
Wilkinso also said a Liberal government would not cut services to pay for the temporary elimination of the PST.
"When you hear from the NDP about asnything suggesting that we're going to be cutting health and education, they are wrong," he said. "They're making it up.
Asked if he would cut other taxes, Wilkinson said the NDP government had introduced or hiked 23 taxes, but then neglected to say whether a Liberal government would reverse any of those new taxes or tax hikes.
