B.C. honour-bound to repay $1.6 billion to Canada for HST, Flaherty says

OTTAWA — The B.C. government is honour-bound to repay the $1.6 billion it received from the federal government to bring in the harmonized sales tax, Finance Minister Jim Flaherty told the House of Commons Tuesday. He was responding to a demand from New Democratic Party deputy leader Libby Davies that the Harper government drop its plan to "punish" British Columbians who voted in a summer referendum to axe the combined federal-provincial sales tax.