While Marc Dalton and the Liberals surprised the province with their May 14 come-from-behind victory, there’s no surprise about what the MLA will be doing when he gets back to Victoria.
The representative for Maple Ridge-Mission was re-named parliamentary secretary to the Minister of Education on Friday, when Premier Christy Clark named her cabinet.
He’s also on the Cabinet Committee on Secure Tomorrow and is deputy chair for committee of the whole, overseeing debates in the House. Dalton held the parliamentary secretary position before the election, as well.
Newly elected Maple Ridge-Pitt Meadows MLA Doug Bing was named to the Cabinet Committee on Strong Economy.
Dalton said Monday the summer session shouldn’t be a long one, just enough to pass the budget announced in the spring.
And while he wasn’t named to cabinet, Dalton, a former teacher, expects to get in one day.
“She’s [the premier] made it clear to me that she’d like to see me in cabinet.”
That could be at any posting, not just education, the former teacher pointed out.
“In the meantime, there’s lots to do.”
What won’t be done, though, is any tinkering with the five-per-cent Harmonized Sales Tax and the seven-per-cent Provincial Sales Tax restored April 1 after the disastrous Liberal introduction of the Harmonized Sales Tax in July 2010.
The B.C. Chamber of Commerce last week called for the government to trash the PST, calling it an “abysmal tax.
“We can’t wait for the PST to do more damage before we act,” chamber president John Winter said in a release.
“This tax stunts business growth in B.C., scares away Canadian or international businesses that might come grow jobs here and mires everybody in red tape and nonsensical rules. Frankly, it’s an embarrassing tax.”
In May, the B.C. chamber called for discussions on creating a value added tax, or VAT, one that would function similarly to the just-dumped HST.
Dalton, though, said that’s not happening.
“I don’t hear anything to the effect that we’re moving in that direction. I don’t think there’s much of an appetite going back to an HST, at all.”
If that was the case, he added, that would have been part of the Liberal election platform.
The chamber has always favoured such a tax, Dalton said.
“That’s been their position for years and years and years.”