The B.C. government's outreach on the harmonized sales hits Abbotsford and Mission on Tuesday evening with a telephone town hall meeting.
The goal of the forums is to ring every listed home phone in B.C.
Finance Minister Kevin Falcon will take questions at some of the forums, and Transportation Minister Blair Lekstrom is sharing the town hall duties with him. Lekstrom was in the hotseat for Wednesday's forum in the Peace River region, his home base.
Lekstrom has been given a high profile in the government's HST effort since returning to the B.C. Liberal caucus after quitting last year due to his constituents' protests over the introduction of the HST. He said Wednesday he expects to hear questions about the workings of the HST, and also some of the objections that have battered the B.C. Liberal government since the tax was introduced.
But after people have lived with the HST for nearly 10 months, Lekstrom said he is more optimistic it will be supported in a mail-in referendum set to begin in mid-June. He credits Premier Christy Clark's effort to give the public a say.
"The willingness to go out and engage the public in these telephone town hall meetings, the opportunity to have their views heard, is exactly what should have happened 18 months ago," Lekstrom said.
How do you participate?
If you have a publicly listed telephone number, you will receive a call at home in the early evening of the day when your regional telephone town hall is being held. A recorded message will ask if you are interested in attending the tele-town hall. If you would like to participate, stay on the line and follow the instructions given in the message.
If you do not want to participate, just hang up.
If you stay on the call, there may be a short wait until the call formally begins or you will be placed into the town hall if it is already underway. A moderator will introduce the call, provide the instructions for participation and describe how you can ask a question, then prompt the next caller when it is their turn to ask a question.
More information can be found at: www.HSTinBC.ca