British Columbians have extinguished the controversial harmonized sales tax.
Elections BC released the results of the HST mail-in referendum Friday morning in Victoria – delivering the final death knell to the much hated tax.
A majority 54.73 per cent of voters sent in ballots to turn down the tax.
More than 1.6 million people -- or 52 per cent of registered voters -- mailed in referendum ballots during the eight-week voting period that ended earlier this month. The number represents almost as many people who voted in the last provincial election.
The province will now return to a GST/PST system, in a process estimated to take between 18 to 24 months. A return to the combined tax will mean a 12 per cent on most consumer goods.
Former premier Bill Vander Zalm, who spearheaded a movement against the HST, calls the results a victory for democracy in British Columbia.
"It sent a message to politicians that they can't simply do things because it's the will of a premier or a party, they have to consult the people," he told reporters. "It's been two years coming."
Premier Christy Clark was slightly less jubilant.
"While I am disappointed with the results, the public has very clearly spoken and now is the time to turn the page," she told reporters.
She says the government will now turn its attention to a new job creation strategy that will form the centrepiece of its fall legislative session.
At the same time, Clark is hedging her bets on a possible election call in the wake of the HST defeat.
She says an immediate election would cause instability in the markets, but she's refusing to come right out and say there will be no fall election.
An anti-HST petition garnered more than 700,000 signatures from across the province, and paved the way for the referendum.
The voting results showed only 25 of 85 B.C. ridings voted to keep the HST, and all of them are held by the governing BC Liberals. Many other Liberal-held ridings voted to reject the tax.
During the voting period, Clark tried to sweeten the pot by promising to cut the tax back to 10 per cent by 2014 if it was supported.
Vander Zalm said the provincial government should tread carefully when rolling out any new tax plan to voters who have proven to be skeptical about new taxes.
"If Plan B goes the way of Plan A they're in trouble," he said, laughing.
The B.C. government will now have to plug a $3-billion hole in its finances. The province is now forced to repay the $1.6 billion it received from Ottawa to switch to the HST.
Finance Minister Kevin Falcon said he is disappointed in the results but the government must respect the will of voters.
He said there is an action plan in place to reinstate the PST and GST system, including some possible "common sense administrative improvements to streamline the PST."
He expects the transitional period to take a minimum of 18 months, a number he attributes to an independent panel who studied the HST during the campaign.
"We will work as quickly as we responsibly can to return to the PST," he said. "Returning to the PST will take time to do properly."
Falcon has said the impact of killing the HST would be an immediate increase in next year's projected budget deficit. He has also hinted at cuts to government programs and social programs.
Opposition NDP leader Adrian Dix calls the results a victory "over the arrogance of the BC Liberals."
"I think that people thought about it, and people made the right decision for their families, for their communities," Dix said, adding that a return to the old system will make life more affordable for the average B.C. family.
Dix questioned why it would take the better part of two years to bring back the old tax system and said his party would hold the liberals accountable to their word.
"If it takes 11 months to go to the HST why does it take 18 months to go back?" he said.
Dix said it's in the best interest of the economy to return to the PST as soon as possible.
The NDP has long maintained that the HST would hurt the economy and businesses because the average person will have less cash to buy goods.
Fallout
Some political insiders have speculated that the tax would be voted down, partially because of the way it was introduced.
Many likened the BC Liberal party's introduction of the HST two years ago to a sneak-attack on citizens.
Mario Canseco, pollster for Angus Reid Public Strategies, says while public anger towards the HST fallen since last year, the idea of it just wasn't popular enough for the majority of people to vote to keep it.
"In June our polls showed that 56 per cent of people would kill the tax. So this is sort of what we all expected," Canseco told ctvbc.ca.
Canseco believes that the government was smart to offer to soften the blow by lowering the tax rate, because it showed an ability to compromise.
He believes one of the BC Liberals biggest upcoming challenges will be how to handle the NDP, who will no doubt be celebrating today's results.
"You don't want to call an election when your main rival is celebrating victory," Canseco said.
The HST was first announced on July 23, 2009, just two months after the Liberals were returned to power under Gordon Campbell. The legislation to blend the seven-per-cent provincial sales tax with the five-per-cent federal GST was tabled eight months later on March 30, 2010.
When Vander Zalm announced his intention last year to harness voter anger about the tax and trigger action through B.C.'s petition law, the goal seemed nearly unreachable. The law requires campaigners to gather 10 per cent of signatures from registered voters in each of 85 electoral districts in just 90 days -- a total of 299,611 signatures.
But the outspoken former leader blew that goal out of the water, nearly doubling the required total with 557,383 signatures deemed valid by elections officials.
By law, a successful petition must be either voted on in the legislature or sent to a non-binding referendum. Much to the dismay of the Fight HST campaign, the Liberals announced last September that the petition would go to a binding, mail-in referendum.
With files from The Canadian Press
