Pallister promises to give public vote on big tax increases
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Hey there, time traveller!
This article was published 11/09/2014 (4043 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.
HE fought the law and the law won, but that isn’t stopping Brian Pallister.
The Opposition leader said Wednesday a Progressive Conservative government would give back to Manitobans the right to vote on a major tax increase, even though a judge has ruled such a measure is legally invalid.
Pallister said while it’s unlikely a PC government would increase taxes, it’s still vital voters have a say in a tax hike.
He also pledged — again — to rescind the NDP’s increase of the provincial sales tax more than a year ago, in his first term in office. “Manitobans who know me will know that I do not make promises lightly,” he said. “When I make this pledge to Manitobans, it’s a sincere pledge.”
Pallister fought the tax hike in court in June, but lost. He argued the Selinger government increased the PST by one point to eight per cent in a single bill that also did away with the need for a referendum, a requirement brought in by the PCs in 1995. The PCs argued two separate pieces of legislation were needed, and with only one the “rights of a million Manitobans” were stripped.
But Court of Queen’s Bench Justice Kenneth Hanssen didn’t agree, saying there was no foundation in law to support Pallister, and a referendum on a money bill undermined the doctrine of parliamentary sovereignty. Hanssen dismissed the PCs’ case.
“I don’t think going to court and standing up for those million Manitobans was anything but an honourable thing,” Pallister said. “I don’t think there’s any baggage at all associated with the court challenge that we undertook. We did it for good reason, and I think it was an honourable and correct thing to do.”
Pallister also said the window on appealing the case is still open, and he and his advisers are mulling it over.
Finance Minister Jennifer Howard has said the government was looking at the idea of going back to court to argue the PCs should pick up a portion of the bill the government forked out to argue the case. The province has said taxpayers were forced to spend more than $150,000 in legal costs in response to the PC party’s challenge.
bruce.owen@freepress.mb.ca