HST petition to be delivered Wednesday

B.C. anti-HST crusader Bill Vander Zalm says he'll be delivering more than 100,000 sheets of signatures on a petition against the tax to Elections BC on Wednesday, the day before the tax is implemented.

Officials will immediately start counting the number of signatures, which he put at nearly 700,000, Vander Zalm said Monday.

"They'll have 42 days to count them," he said.

The counting will continue on Canada Day, and the process will be overseen daily by two observers from the anti-HST campaign, Vander Zalm said.

The petition drive went better than expected but organizers could have reached even more people without some rules preventing them from accessing townhouses and condos, he said.

Organizers needed written permission from owners to enter such residences, but many of them live overseas, Vander Zalm said.

B.C. Finance Minister Colin Hansen said Monday that more than one million people with low or moderate incomes will be eligible for an HST credit every four months, with the first cheques going out the week of July 5.

B.C. residents with incomes up to $20,000 will receive an annual HST credit up to $230. Families with incomes up to $25,000 will receive an annual B.C. HST credit up to $230 per family member, Hansen said in a release.

The B.C. HST credit will be in addition to the GST credit of up to $381 and the $105-per-adult B.C. Low Income Climate Action Tax Credit that those with low and modest incomes now receive, Hansen said.

The HST combines the former B.C. seven per cent provincial sales tax and the five-per-cent GST for a 12 per cent tax to be paid on most goods and services.

Organizers of the official anti-HST petition campaign say they have collected 15 per cent of the signatures of registered voters in each of the province's B.C. ridings.

The petition, if validated by Elections BC, could ultimately force the Liberal government to submit a bill to the legislature repealing the HST.

But the government's current 13-seat majority likely would defeat the legislation.