Okay, first things first: If you don't like the HST, please register to vote by April 5th!

This is extremely important. Elections BC approved an initiative proposal to cancel the implementation of the HST. The initiative campaign needs signatures from 10% of the registered voters in each of the 85 constituencies in the province within 90 days, starting April 6, 2010. In order to sign an initiative petition you must be a registered voter by no later than April 5.

As far as this petition for HST bike exemption from Lana Popham is concerned, I see it as a defeatist distraction. I'll stop short of declaring a concpiracy, but I do question the motives behind this. The timing makes it come off as subversive. The real initiative proposes to reinstate the 7% PST with the same exemptions (including bikes) so I don't know why she would be pushing this instead.  

I'm with Birdy. It's not even clear how a bike exemption in BC for the HST would work, since the whole problem so many of us have with the HST is that it takes the sales tax entirely out of the hands of the provincial government. Bikes are just one of many current exemptions that we currently have in BC that will be lost. I won't support this compromise, as it does nothing to address the real problem and, in any event, is probably totally unworkable. 

Just another example of how cyclists don't want to pay their way in society. They don't want to pay for roads and paths they ride on, nor insurance for the accidents they cause...now they don't want to pay taxes either.

There's no free ride in life. 

Transitrider: just so you know, roads and paths are paid for by taxes paid by everyone... not just car drivers. also, know that most bicycle riders also have a car and pay insurance, but choose to cycle to save on gas/insurance and for their own good health. 

No problem with bikes. It's just that roads and transit are primarily paid for by drivers through gas taxes and licensing fees. And I'm all for separate bike paths and lanes. I just want cyclists to pay their fair share of taxes, get licensed and and insured. 

@ vicperson

Please actually do some research before posting. Roads in cities and towns are primarily funded through property taxes, which everyone, including cyclists pay. If you look at the provincial transportation budget of $860 million, there is only $3 million for cycling yet 2% of trips are by bicycle. With the HST, cyclists will be paying around $20 million on bicycles and cycling accessories. To be fair, the budget for cycling should be around $25 million per year. Cyclists are clearly getting ripped off. 

Richard C.

Roads in cities and towns are primarily funded through property taxes, which everyone, including cyclists pay.
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This statement strikes me as being very hard to justify.


As far as I know, new local roads are paid through development cost charges, and I am 101% sure that Richard C knows about those charges.


The whole idea behind DCCs is to keep road, water, sewer and other cost OFF of the general municipal property tax, shifting it instead to the contractor, and by extension to both the new purchaser and the former property owner. Some years ago the Mun of Burnaby hired an analyst to do a report on the actual incidence of DCCs, to find out who ultimately paid. He found that for the most part the DCC amounts showed up as lower bid prices on properties to be redeveloped, so in other words the burden passed not to the new condo/house purchaser, and didn't stick with the developer either, but rather came out of the returns to the previous property owner.


Any major road or bridge project in BC inevitably involves federal and provincial funding for much of its capital cost. Otherwise, it simply doesn't get built. So again, it's not the local property tax payer whose paying for the project, or at least not them alone.


Rod Smelser