Lawyers in B.C. Supreme Court this week are arguing over the court cases Elections BC has said must be settled before a citizens’ petition against the controversial HST can be passed to a legislative committee.
Local constitutional experts such as Ted McWhinney told Business in Vancouver they are unsure how the courts will rule.
A group of six business organizations are challenging the legal validity of the anti-HST petition.
“We say the HST is federal legislation and that, as a result, once the political decision by the two governments is made to bring it into force, it is no longer under the constitutional power of the legislature of the province to unilaterally extinguish it,” former B.C. attorney general Geoff Plant told a media scrum earlier this week. He is representing the group of business organizations opposing the validity of the petition.
Plant, who is now a partner at Heenan Blaikie LLP, said, “So, the initiative petition, we think, is fundamentally flawed because it’s based on a premise that is a constitutional impossibility."
Petition organizer Bill Vander Zalm has also filed a counter-action, arguing the government did not implement the HST as required by law.
Arvay Finlay lawyer Joseph Arvay, arguing on behalf of Vander Zalm and HST opponents, believes the HST should be invalidated because the federal government does not have the power to impose a direct tax on British Columbians for provincial purposes.