B.C. NDP leader Adrian Dix was in Prince George Friday and Saturday to talk HST - and watch a little baseball.
Dix was in Prince George as part of his Vote Yes B.C. tour campaigning against the HST. It's his second visit to the city since the tour began. In addition, Dix met with Young New Democrats at UNBC at caught part of the Canada-Japan game at the World Baseball Challenge, he said.
"People in Prince George, and everywhere, petitioned to have this referendum. We have to get out and vote yes to extinguish the HST and restore the PST and GST," Dix said. " I think we have to return to the PST and GST as they were on June 30, 2010."
Arguments by business lobby's, Premier Christy Clark and Liberal MLAs that returning to the PST will hurt the economy are more fear-mongering than fact, Dix said.
"When I talk to small businesses, not the associations but the small businesses themselves, they say the HST has hurt their customers... hurt their business," he said.
Dix said the promise by Clark to reduce the HST to 10 per cent should also be considered suspect.
"On March 17, [Premier] Christy Clark said she would not talk about reducing the rate, because it would be buying votes. Well, now she is buying votes," he said. "She said if we were to lower the rate by two points it would cost the health care system $1.6 billion. I don't think anyone in Prince George wants to see those kinds of cuts."
In addition, the Liberals promises about the HST have all been proven false so far, so there is no reason to think it couldn't happen again with the rate reduction.
"The Liberals said in writing they wouldn't implement an HST, and they did. They said it would create 100,000 jobs and it hasn't. They said it would be revenue neutral and it isn't," he said. "We're seeing a shift [in taxation] onto middle-income families."
The province had a PST for 60 years without any problems, he added.
B.C. Jobs, Innovation and Tourism Minister Pat Bell said the arguments against the HST are based on emotional, rather than rational, reasoning.
"If people vote based on good economic policy, rather than emotions about the way the tax was brought in, they will vote to keep the HST," Bell said. "When you listen to Adrian Dix... they are opposing it on the emotion of the issue, rather than an intelligent argument."
The HST is important to keep B.C.'s industry competitive and maintain jobs, he said.
"Ironically the people most vehemently opposed to the HST are the ones who benefit the most, through rebates or economic development," Bell said. "I think if people vote on good common sense, it'll pass. If they vote on emotion, I'm not so confident."
Voters who have not yet sent in their mail-in ballot have until Aug. 5 to get their vote in to Elections B.C. For more information on the HST referendum, go online to www.elections.bc.ca.
