[1] The HST is in effect in five of the ten Canadian provinces: New Brunswick, Newfoundland and Labrador, Nova Scotia, Ontario and Prince Edward Island.
[7] On July 1, 2006, the Government of Canada reduced the GST nationwide to 6%,[8] resulting in a combined HST for Nova Scotia, New Brunswick and Newfoundland and Labrador of 14%.
The GST was again lowered nationwide on January 1, 2008 to its current rate of 5%,[9] resulting in a combined HST in Nova Scotia, New Brunswick and Newfoundland and Labrador of 13%.
On April 6, 2010, the Government of Nova Scotia raised the provincial portion of the HST to 10%, restoring the overall rate in that province to 15% effective July 1, 2010 as part of deficit fighting measures.
The implementation of HST in British Columbia and Ontario replaced the separate GST and PST charged on goods and services in those provinces.
British Columbia also provided a one-time transition payment of $175 to low and modest income seniors as well as $175 for each child under 18 to every family with children.
"[21] British Columbia residents voted in a referendum in August 2011 to repeal the HST, resulting in the province reverting to the former PST/GST model, with rates of 7% and 5% respectively, on April 1, 2013.
[23][24] In November 2009, an Ipsos Reid poll found that the vast majority of British Columbians (82%) and Ontarians (74%) opposed their provincial governments' plans to harmonize the sales tax.
A study by Jack Mintz of the University of Calgary School of Public Policy suggested the HST and a drop in the corporate tax rate would have created almost 600,000 new jobs over ten years.
[citation needed] Former British Columbia Premier Bill Vander Zalm launched a petition against the HST in response to the public outrage.
On August 11, 2010, Elections BC informed him[27] that the campaign had succeeded in collecting the signatures of more than 10% of registered voters in each of the province's 85 ridings by July 5, 2010.
Elections BC was expected to make a formal announcement but they declined to do so and chose not to move forward in the process until the courts decided on a case, brought by local business groups, challenging the petition.
[29] On August 20, 2010, Chief Justice Robert J. Bauman ruled a petition opposing British Columbia's controversial harmonized sales tax was valid.
Yes or No"[31] In November 2010, Gordon Campbell resigned as Premier, noting that his own unpopularity had effectively stopped the government from moving forward with its agenda and made real discussion about the HST impossible.
The provincial government also committed to mailing onetime transition payments of $175 per child to families with children and $175 for low and middle income seniors.
[18] A month later, the federal government passed legislation to "formalize and give legal force to the reductions in the rate of the provincial component of the HST in British Columbia".