The harmonized sales tax became law Thursday in British Columbia, with the passage of Bill 9, an Act which repeals the Provincial Sales Tax (PST), and allows it to be replaced with a Harmonized Sales Tax — a blended 12-per-cent federal and provincial tax — effective July 1.

“The Canadian Parliament has already passed the HST legislation, removing any question that the HST will come into effect on July 1, 2010,” said Kootenay East MLA Bill Bennett. “This Act we just passed rids B.C. of the inefficient, unfair provincial sales tax.”

“Every credible economist; major employers from forestry to mining to retail and more; and 130 countries agree that a value-added tax like the HST is the right thing to do to stimulate economic growth and create jobs,” said Bennett. “The NDP prefer the PST, despite expert after expert saying it’s a punitive tax on investment. It’s not surprising, since the NDP’s tax policies have been proven disasters for B.C. through the 1990s. They also voted against every single tax cut of the over 100 this government has brought in.”

The Liberals used closure to end debate in the legislature, voting 46-36 to implement the tax on schedule.

This didn’t sit well with Norm Macdonald, NDP MLA for Columbia River-Revelstoke.

“There are 213 sections to the bill and we were only through 50 or so,” Macdonald said. “There was still a long way to go but they invoked closure. It wasn’t necessary, there could have been time to debate the bill. They had an opportunity to bring it in sooner and there’s still a month to go. They created an artificial deadline. It’s just another abuse of the legislature.

“The implementation of the HST is one of the issues that has raised the most public interest that I can recall in the time that I have been in Victoria,” said Macdonald. “I can’t remember any issue that has been so thoroughly discussed by the public.

“I also cannot recall any time that the people have so clearly been against a government action. Every poll on the issue proves it.”

Premier Gordon Campbell was not in the legislature for the vote. British Columbia joins Ontario and the three Maritime provinces with an HST. The government said the tax will help the economy by encouraging investment but critics say it shifts more of the tax burden onto individuals because many goods and services previously exempt from provincial sales tax now are subject to the HST. A press release issued by Bennett last week read that “for most of the month of April, the B.C. Legislature debated Bill 9, which repealed the PST. The opposition NDP argued against repealing the PST, demonstrating their lack of understanding of how PST is charged multiple times in the production of many consumer items, with the consumer ultimately paying for every one of those times the 7 per cent is charged. HST is paid once and only once.”

However, the fight over the controversial tax appears far from over. A grassroots petition campaign to repeal the HST led by former premier Bill Vander Zalm continues to gather support, and the Opposition New Democrats say they’ll continue to push the government to dump the tax before it’s officially implemented on July 1. Vander Zalm is spearheading a petition drive to force a non-binding referendum to repeal the tax under the province’s recall and initiative legislation.

With files from Dirk Meissner/Canadian Press