Halt HST until referendum decided: Layton

Federal NDP Leader Jack Layton wants the Harper government to put off implementation of the harmonized sales tax in British Columbia until a proposed provincial referendum on cancelling it has been held.

Layton sent a letter Thursday to Prime Minister Stephen Harper urging him to suspend imposition of the tax which blends the GST with the provincial sales tax but applies it to more goods and services until the referendum process is complete.

It's easier to put the tax in limbo now rather than try to rescind it if the referendum succeeds, the letter says.

'The people of British Columbia are kind of rising up with a more intense enthusiasm' Federal NDP leader Jack Layton on the anti-HST campaign

The tax is due to take effect July 1 but the bill enabling it has yet to be passed by the B.C. legislature.

"We're here to support the people of British Columbia, who are rising up in unprecedented numbers using the democratic tools that are available to say No to a tax they were told would never be imposed on them by the Campbell government and the Stephen Harper Conservatives," Layton told reporters inside a crowded family restaurant in East Vancouver.

Accused of hypocrisy

Harper's spokesman, Dimitri Soudas, said he doesn't know if the letter has arrived but accused the NDP leader of hypocrisy.

Layton said nothing when the NDP government in Nova Scotia boosted its harmonized sales tax (HST) two percentage points to 15 per cent in its budget earlier this month, Soudas said.

The HST, which takes effect in Ontario on July 1, is backed by much of the business sector that supports the B.C. government. They say it will lower costs and spur investment.

But other British Columbians and small businesses are opposing it because they say it will raise the cost of such things as restaurant meals, hair cuts, bicycles and home sales items previously exempt from the provincial tax.

The B.C. government has argued the harmonized tax will lower business costs and those savings will be passed on to consumers in the form of lower prices.

In a political alliance that's unusual even in B.C. politics, the provincial NDP have joined forces with their old foe, former Social Credit premier Bill Vander Zalm, who is spearheading the referendum campaign.

Under the province's recall and initiative law, the group has until July 5 to collect signatures from 10 per cent of voters in each B.C. riding to force a referendum, which even if it passes is non-binding on the government.

The provincial Liberals negotiated the HST deal last year weeks after winning re-election in a campaign where they insisted they weren't interested in it.

Impressed by petition campaign

The tax deal with Ottawa, which included $1.6 billion in federal dollars to help implement it, has cut into Liberal support and triggered a grassroots campaign against the HST.

"A lot of people who haven't been involved in politics are becoming involved in this whole signatures process across the province," said Layton.

Vancouver-Kingsway MP Don Davies said there's no hurry to implement the HST while the referendum process takes its course.

"They can hold off several months and they can do so when it's the democratic expressions of the people of British Columbia that are at stake," he said.

The furor over the HST in British Columbia contrasts with a more muted opposition in Ontario, which has no similar referendum law, Layton noted. That may change once the tax starts to bite after July 1, he said.

"I must say, as is often the case, the people of British Columbia are kind of rising up with a more intense enthusiasm as we often see in the politics of British Columbia," said Layton, who represents a Toronto riding.

"The sleeping giant of popular opinion in Ontario's a little slower perhaps to express itself in such a significant way, but it's coming."