By Jonathan Fowlie
VICTORIA — The B.C. Liberal government planned to use Olympic nostalgia and free iPads to persuade a reluctant public to support the harmonized sales tax.
“The 2010 Olympic and Paralympic Winter Games gave British Columbia a foundation to build a stronger province and create new opportunities for workers and families,” said a 10-page pamphlet the government had planned to mail to each home in 2010, not long after the Games had finished.
The controversial tax was scrapped after B.C. residents voted it down in August.
Obtained by the Vancouver Sun after a 19-month battle under the Freedom of Information Act, draft copies of the pamphlet contain a large image of the Olympic flame on the cover and bear the title “Spirit of 2010: Building on B.C.’s Olympic Advantage.”
The government never sent out the pamphlet, shredding all copies not long after having spent $780,000 to have them designed and printed.
On its second page, the pamphlet features a list of the “10 reasons why B.C. is The Best Place on Earth,” including answers like: “we give hope to the world;” “we’re cool;” and “we like big stuff.”
One part of the pamphlet contained a contest giving people a chance to win one of three Apple iPads, valued, it said, at about $750 each.
At the end of the document, the government used three pages to push the merits of the HST, saying the then controversial tax is “good for B.C.”
“Academic research and evidence from other jurisdictions have shown that under an HST tax structure wages go up, prices go down and more jobs are created,” it said.
“You won’t pay a penny more on many of the products and services you use every day,” it added, providing a list of items such as basic groceries, books and children’s diapers.
On Thursday, Finance Minister Kevin Falcon — who was not minister responsible at the time — said the pamphlet was quashed because it would have been mailed out at the same time as a court challenge on the anti-HST petition, and government did not think the approach was going to be helpful.
“The idea was a desire to talk about the success of the Olympics and the HST and I think that, frankly, British Columbians wouldn’t have been very receptive to it,” said Falcon.
“My understanding is it was killed by the premier’s office of the day and I don’t know much more,” he continued. (Gordon Campbell was premier at the time)
New Democratic Party leader Adrian Dix called the pamphlets a laughable waste of taxpayer money.
“It’s kind of, ‘Can you believe how out of touch they are?’ kind of funny,” Dix said Friday after being briefed on the contents of the pamphlet.
“This sounds like a Liberal Party that knew they had misled people and were hoping, I guess, a spoonful of publicly paid sugar would help the medicine go down.”
Dix added the government continues to spend money in a similar fashion, with recent documents showing that as of last month the government had spent $866,697 on advertising for its Jobs Plan.
“They’re still doing it. The premier is doing branding ads for her jobs plan right now at $800,000 and really, when you look at what she’s doing now, they don’t learn anything,” he said.
In 2010, then-finance minister Colin Hansen said his government had wanted to send a version of the HST pamphlet that April, hoping it could land on doorsteps before the HST first took effect on July 1 of that year.
Elections BC rejected the first version of the pamphlet because an anti-HST petition was circulating at the time. It ruled at the time that distributing the pamphlet while canvassers were collecting signatures was a violation of the province’s Recall and Initiative Act.
Hansen said government later redrafted the pamphlet into a more general mailer — the one released this week — only to shred the copies it had printed.
The Vancouver Sun first requested the pamphlet under the Freedom of Information Act on June 24, 2010.
The government refused the request in August of that year, citing a section of the act that allows government to block disclosure of records that “would reveal advice or recommendations developed by or for a public body or a minister.”
The Vancouver Sun referred the matter to the Office of the Information and Privacy Commissioner, which attempted unsuccessfully to resolve the dispute in mediation.
The province finally released the documents to the Vancouver Sun right before an inquiry to be held by the privacy commissioner’s office.
“Although it is believed (section) 13 applies to the records at issue, the head (of Government Communications and Public Engagement) has reconsidered and is exercising her discretion to disclose them,” said a letter that accompanied the documents.
On Friday, Dix criticized the entire process, saying government has no right to block documents that were created for the sole purpose of mass public distribution.
“It shows an absolute contempt for FOI laws to make the argument they’ve been making as to why they didn’t release this,” he said.
“This was a publicly paid document, it was intended for public release and for the public to have.”
Asked about the process, Falcon said it “bothers” him that government sought to block release of the document.
He added that upon hearing the pamphlet was being blocked he recommended it be released.
“My direction to staff was really clear: just release the damn thing,” he said.
Postmedia News
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B.C. Liberals planned to promote HST by giving away iPads