A Liberal committee chair now says the British Columbia government can't declare the anti-HST petition invalid.
Kamloops-area MLA Terry Lake is chairman of the committee that must decide what to do if the petition gets the required number of signatures -- 10 per cent of registered voters in each of the province's 85 ridings.
Lake had earlier suggested his committee could examine the wording of the petition and declare it invalid, but he now says he was mistaken.
Instead, he says the government must either table a bill in the legislature or hold a referendum.
Lake says he didn't mean to suggest his committee could throw out the petition entirely, but rather could change the wording to keep it in line with the legislative powers of the province.
He now says that's wrong and provincial law requires the petition's wording to remain unchanged, limiting the government's options to a vote in the legislature or a referendum.
