First telephone town hall on the HST is tonight in Surrey

First telephone town hall on the HST is tonight in Surrey
The provincial finance minister will be answering questions
Shane Bigham Apr 27, 2011 18:40:48 PM
0 VANCOUVER (NEWS1130) - Every listed phone number in Surrey is getting a call this evening at 6:30. The city is among the first to participate in the provincial government's telephone town hall meetings on the HST.

If you have questions about the HST, finance minister Kevin Falcon will try to answer them for you, and maybe convince you the controversial tax is the right policy for BC.

"See if there are ways that we might make some changes to improve the HST at least in the public mind, so that we can generate support for retaining what I think at the end of the day is very good public tax policy."

When the phone rings, you'll be asked if you want to participate, follow the prompts, or hang up if you're not interested.

Falcon says the technology being used helped him and other leadership candidates connect with thousands of people during the race to replace Gordon Campbell.

These telephone meetings will be happening across BC between now and May 12th.

Province looks into paying back federal HST money

It's going to be tough returning money that's already been spent. The province is already looking at what it will have to do if voters decide to scrap the HST in June, forcing BC to return 1.6 billion to Ottawa.

The money was sent here to ensure a smooth transition from the old GST PST system to the new tax. That money will have to be returned if the tax is scrapped.

Finance Minister Kevin Falcon says it'll be tough. "The reality is that is going to be a pretty significant blow. I can tell you as a former Health Minister that a lot of those dollars went directly into supporting our health care system."

Falcon and Premier Christy Clark have both said the government will do everything it can to minimize the impact if the money goes back to Ottawa.

Voters will decide the HST's fate in June during a mail-in referendum.

Meanwhile, a key piece of legislation has been introduced, and according to BC's Attorney General, it will save taxpayers millions of dollars.

Barry Penner says the goal of the new bill is to scrap the September 24th HST referendum, and replace it with mail-in ballots to be sent in June 13th.

Those ballots would be due July 22nd.