Harmonized sales tax supporters faced a tough crowd when a public forum on the issue was held at the University of Northern British Columbia on Thursday night.
Tax lawyer David Robertson, from Vancouver, and Prince George businessman Dan McLaren found themselves dealing with heckling from a handful of the 120 largely partisan and mostly grey-haired people who attended the forum.
In contrast, former premier Bill Vander Zalm and Fight HST organizer Chris Delaney were greeted with loud rounds of applause.
In an opening statement, Robertson began by highlighting the provincial government's promise this week of a two-percentage deduction by July 1, 2014, if the HST survives the referendum an cd one-time transition cheques of $175 per child and low-to-modest-income senior.
"What a difference 48 hours can make," Robertson said.
Robertson said he's practiced sales tax law for 15 years and has seen how the provincial sales tax kills jobs. provides a disincentive to invest and imposes confusion on consumers. He said B.C.is one of the few jurisdictions to impose two forms of sales tax on consumers.
"That's double the complexity, that double the administration, that's double the burden," he said,
The catcalls began when Robertson disputed Vander Zalm's claim low-incomeBritish Columbians will be worse off under the HST. The comment prompted one woman to demand Robertson to tell the crowd how much he makes in a year.
McLaren said the HST rebate has played a key role in paying for a seniors project downtown.
"If the argument is, you're just using it to help the rich, I'm respectfully here to tell you that we're here to help the poor,"he said.
Vander Zalm said both the provincial sale tax and the HST, saying they're both regressive and that he would like to see the day when there are no consumer taxes in B.C.
He went on to stress the revise figures an independent panel produced which how lower job creation and higher revenue than the provincial government originally estimated.
"It's also a day for a question," he said. "The question of how a government could be so far out [on its numbers]...they missed $850 million? All those financial experts?"
Delaney drew cheers when he said "hundreds more items" will be taxed under the HST.
Referendum ballots will be mailed out June 13 and the results are not expected until mid-August.
