HST showdown looms in B.C. legislature

B.C. New Democrats say there's no way they'll allow the Liberal government of Premier Gordon Campbell to pass the harmonized sales tax bill by April 30.

"There are weeks and weeks and weeks of debate and then clause examination of 213 clauses in this bill," NDP house leader Mike Farnworth said Friday. "So there will be no accommodation with government to get this bill passed.

The government says the bill must pass by April 30 because some sections take effect the next day, May 1.

The bill repeals the provincial sales tax to make way for the new harmonized sales tax (HST).

Liberal house leader Mike de Jong is hinting the government may invoke closure.

"I'm hopeful that [the NDP] will take their role as an opposition sufficiently seriously to see the bill go to committee stage for discussion and debate," said de Jong. "If they don't, perhaps we'll help them with that decision."

The bill was introduced on March 30, but it still has not received second reading.

De Jong said the New Democrats have already had weeks to debate the bill, and they've chosen to use their time focusing on different issues.

On Thursday, federal NDP leader Jack Layton said in Vancouver that he has written to Prime Minister Stephen Harper and asked him to delay implementing the tax until the anti-HST petition campaign and possible subsequent referendum in B.C. are over.