The B.C. government has abandoned plans to mail a pro-HST pamphlet to every household in the province because it says public reaction to the new tax has been better than expected.
Despite public opinion polls that show the government continues to take a beating over the unpopular tax, Finance Minister Colin Hansen said he no longer feels a provincewide mailer is necessary.
"I think the rollout of the HST has been smoother than we had anticipated," Hansen said yesterday.
"There were lots of people that felt the mailer was not necessary and others that said they did not want to receive it. There was a sense that sending out the mailer could in fact exacerbate some of the concerns that are out there."
The harmonized sales tax came into effect July 1.
After a month of travelling the province, attempting to explain the benefits of the HST, Hansen said he has found less anger than he'd anticipated.
"I think people had expected it to be a much bigger impact on their wallets than it was," he said.
The mail campaign had been a cornerstone of the Liberal government's communications strategy to shore up support for the tax and counter what it said was widespread misinformation about its impact.
Instead of the pamphlets, the province will extend its HST radio advertisements by an extra week in August, Hansen said.
The Opposition NDP accused the government of wasting taxpayer money on a mail-out scheme it had to abandon at the last minute.
"Clearly, they've decided it would inflame the situation if they mailed out a publicly funded mailer on the HST at this time," NDP finance critic Bruce Ralston said. "[Hansen] may think it's going smoothly, but that's certainly not the anecdotal stuff I hear."
Ralston called on the province to disclose the cost of the pamphlets.
But Hansen refused, saying the money spent on HST advertising comes from the Finance Ministry's existing public affairs budget and will be disclosed in end-of-year public accounts in 2011.
Each colour pamphlet was 12 pages. The province printed 1.6 million copies before deciding not to send them.
Hansen said a portion of the pamphlets can be used this fall as part of the mailers sent across the province during pre-budget consultations.
He said another reason for cancelling the HST mail campaign was that the pamphlets would have arrived at B.C. households in mid-August, around the same time as two HST-related court challenges are expected. Hansen said he had concerns about that timing.
The government had tried to start a mail campaign earlier this year, but its pamphlets were rejected by Elections B.C. because they constituted unregistered advertising during former premier Bill Vander Zalm's anti-HST petition campaign.
Vander Zalm submitted more than 705,000 signatures opposing the HST last month.
Elections B.C. is validating the petition drive and has a deadline of Aug. 11.
Fight HST organizer Chris Delaney dismissed Hansen's suggestion that anger over the tax has dissipated.
"Of course that's what they'll say, it's arrogance and pride," he said. "Do we expect anything else from them?"
Hansen said he'll continue to tour the province this summer to speak about the benefits of the HST.
