Fight HST campaigners aren't waiting for Elections B.C. to count the names on a province-wide petition to dump the harmonized sales tax.
Organizer Chris Delaney says 705,643 voters have backed the Initiative campaign.
He says that represents 44 per cent of all the voters who cast ballots in the last provincial election.
Fight HST leader Bill Vander Zalm plans to deliver the petition — amounting to more than 100,000 sheets of signatures — to Elections B.C. on Wednesday.
An official tally and verification of the signatures could take up to 42 days, although the combined federal and provincial sales tax takes effect in B.C. on Canada Day.
Meanwhile, Finance Minister Colin Hansen says the HST is the right choice for B.C. and he says more than one million people with low or moderate incomes will be eligible for a quarterly tax credit, with the first cheques going out next week.
