Fourteen people showed up to listen to New Democrat finance critic Bruce Ralston slam the B.C. Liberal government on the Harmonized Sales Tax (HST), gaming grants and the provincial budget in 100 Mile on Saturday.

The Surrey-Whalley MLA spoke for about 30 minutes and fielded several questions

at the United Church.

He insisted the government has not been honest on the HST prior to forming government in the last election. Since the election, he added Premier Gordon Campbell and his finance minister (Colin Hansen) announced the HST is the single most important thing the government can do for the economy.

“If it’s such a profound economic stimulus to the economy, why didn’t he talk about it during the election (campaign); why wasn’t it in the Liberal platform; why wasn’t it in the February budget; and why wasn’t in the October 2008 so-called stimulus package?”

The finance critic claimed that during the election campaign, the Liberal government answered a Restaurant Asso-ciation survey regarding their intentions on the HST, stating, “they would not do it” and listed the reasons why they wouldn’t do it.

He said the B.C. Liberals point to the Maritimes (Newfoundland, New Brunswick and Nova Scotia) as proof the HST is good for the economy. A study was done on how the HST affected the Maritimes, he added, and it was footnoted in the Liberals budget.

Ralston explained those provinces actually lowered their provincial sales tax when the HST was introduced, and the thinking at the time was the move would increase investment and consumer prices would drop because big businesses would be getting a tax break and, therefore, reduced production costs would naturally lower consumer costs.

He said the report states investment went up temporarily but there was no change in the prices the big companies were charging.

Noting the Campbell government is arguing average British Columbians will be better off with the HST because they

will be getting a credit, Ralston said the math shows if a person is working full time and is making more than $13 an hour they won’t be getting a credit.

Gaming grants

In recent years, Ralston said, numerous organizations have become increasingly reliant on lottery funding to support their operations.

Prior to the

election, he added, it was typical for the government and organizations to sign a letter of understanding for funding disbursements over three years.

“The government said it was going to cut years 2 and 3. They withdrew that because… the word was they were worried about a class-action lawsuit and there was a reasonable expectation they would have to pay the year 2 and 3 funding — so they rescinded because they didn’t want further negative publicity.”

Ralston said a lot of these organizations are very small with limited budgets and there funding has just been cut.

“I understand your local MLA has said that is not the case; it is the case and she’s wrong.”

Increasing deficit

Because it was an election year, Ralston said there was a budget document tabled in February that the MLAs talked about but wasn’t voted on or passed.

Then, he added, the election took place and a very different budget was tabled.

“What the premier and the finance minister said in February was the deficit was going to be $495 million and they maintained that through the election. During the radio debate on April 23, the premier said it was going to be $495 million max … and at the time he said that, he knew it was wrong. It was false; it was a lie; he lied about the deficit numbers.”

All revenue projections through February to April were the government’s revenue was declining, he added.

Ralston said that during the election campaign, two key pieces — the deficit and no HST — were completely and totally false.

“That’s what the government campaigned and that’s what they got re-elected on.”

The finance critic noted that the deficit as it sits now is at $3.5 billion, reduced by $750 million

that’s part of the $1.6 billion “signing

bonus for signing onto the HST.”