Vander Zalm Response to Vancouver Sun Columnist
Apr 8, 2010 Letters
Dear Editor,
Regarding Vaughn Palmer’s column concerning the legality of the Fight HST Citizen Initiative.
Mr. Palmer suggests that our initiative to recind the HST in BC will be off side with federal legislation, and therefore can’t work. He is only half right.
Our “HST Extinguishment Act” will recind the Comprehensive Integrated Tax Coordination Agreement (CITCA) that BC signed with Ottawa. That means the HST legislation passed by Ottawa will be effectively voided, since the CITCA agreement requires the valid authority of British Columbia to stand in both BC and Ottawa. Once that authority is recinded by BC, the agreement is no longer valid, and the federal government would not be able to legally collect a “harmonized” sales tax in BC anymore. In other words, it would no longer be a “harmonized” sales tax collected with provincial agreement, it would only be a federal tax. Read the rest of this entry »
Tags: British Columbia, canadian constitution, citizen initiative, coordination agreement, excise tax act, federal excise tax, federal government, federal legislation, federal tax, GST, harmonized sales tax, last time, moot point, ottawa, percentages, prime minister, provincial legislatures, sales tax, tax coordination, taxing authority
