Former British Columbia premier Bill Vander Zalm waits to board a ferry in Tsawwassen, B.C., on Wednesday June 30, 2010, to deliver anti-HST petitions which contain more than 700,000 signatures to Elections B.C. in Victoria.Darryl Dyck/ The Canadian Press
Elections BC will not make any public comment Wednesday when it is expected to declare whether an anti-HST petition has met the threshold of obtaining the signatures of 10 per cent of voters in each of the province's 85 ridings.
An agency spokesman said Monday they will only contact former B.C. premier William Vander Zalm, leader of the anti-HST forces, to announce their findings.
Don Main said that means no public statement or comment from Craig James, acting chief electoral officer, on their work to assess more than 700,000 signatures. Mr. James will not hold a news conference.
"All I can say is we won't be making a comment at this time," Mr. Main said from Victoria, noting that the non-partisan office of the legislature has determined its role is to inform the proponents of the outcome of weeks of review of the petitions
Elections BC is judging if anti-HST petition meets the requirements of B.C.'s Recall and Initiative Act, which allows registered voters to propose new laws or changes to existing laws.
"That's what the proponent will be notified of," he said, adding the chief electoral officer has decided on the approach.
Asked why the chief electoral officer made that decision, Mr. Main said "I am not totally sure on that." He said the officer was not available Monday for further consultation.
Asked what would happen if petition organizers misrepresented the results, Mr. Main said "I can't make any comment on that."
But Bill Tieleman, speaking for the Fight HST organization, said the situation was one of the strangest, most unprecedented things he had seen in 20 years of involvement in B.C. politics.
He called on Elections BC to provide full details on their findings, including a riding-by-riding breakdown of results.
"The burden should not be on the proponent. The burden of providing information to the public should be on those who are paid by the public, who are public servants. That is the staff and officials of Elections BC. It's patently obvious that's their role in this and any other initiative," he said.
"I can't imagine in a by-election, Elections BC would call the winner and say, 'Congratulations, you won.' "
The provincial Liberal move to harmonize the province's 7-per-cent sales tax with the 5-per-cent federal sales tax has fuelled outrage in British Columbia, leading to the petition effort. If the petition is validated by Elections BC, a legislative committee would have the option of putting the issue of repealing the HST to a vote of the legislature or endorsing a provincial referendum on the matter.
The current petition process is one of six in the history of initiative petitions in the province. Prior to this, the effort that garnered the most signatures was a 2002 effort to establish a proportional representation system. But that effort failed.
He said HST supporters, namely government MLAs, will be as curious as HST critics about the results of the Elections BC assessment.
"I would presume every elected MLA of all parties and independents would want to know immediately how many valid voters signatures were obtained in their riding," he said.
"If I were a Liberal MLA worried about recall, I would want to be the first person to find out how many signatures were verified," he added, referring to the process that could prompt HST critics to launch a new round of petitions to have MLAs removed from their seats.
Premier Gordon Campbell, interviewed before Elections BC made their plans clear, said he was simply waiting to see how things turned out.
"We'll see what takes place. I am sure Elections BC has been thorough and if the petition is successful, we will be able to go to a parliamentary committee and they will decide what the next steps will be."