Here are the milestones of the short journey of the Harmonized Sales Tax (HST) in the province of British Columbia (BC):
July 13, 2009: The HST was first announced by the Liberal government under Premier Gordon Campbell.
March 30, 2010: The legislation to blend the 7% Provincial Sales Tax (PST) with the 5% federal Goods and Services Tax (GST) was tabled.
June 30, 2010: 705,643 signatures were collected by the province's FightHST campaign led by Vander Zalm for a petition seeking a referendum to stop the HST.
July 1, 2010: The 12% HST started.
August 11, 2010: Election BC verified the official anti-HST petition filed by the FightHST campaign.
August 20, 2010: Chief Justice Robert J. Bauman ruled a petition opposing the HST was valid.
September 12, 2010: It was announced a referendum to be held on September 24, 2011 on canceling the HST.
March 14, 2011: Gordon Campbell resigned as premier amid strong political opposition to the implementation of the HST. He was succeeded by Christy Clark.
May 25, 2011: Premier Christy Clark proposed to cut the HST rate to 11% from 12% on July 1, 2012 and another 1% in 2014 to bring the rate to 10% if British Columbians vote to keep the HST.
August 26, 2011: The results of the HST mail-in referendum showed 54.73% of voters chose to turn down the HST with 45.27% voting to keep it in place. It is expected to take at lease 18 months to reverse to PST system.
