It wasn't the result they wanted.
Business owners in Burnaby are expressing disappointment about the results of the harmonized sales tax referendum.
Elections B.C. announced the results on Friday, with 54.73 per cent of respondents voting to get rid of the tax and 45.27 per cent voting to keep it.
"I'm really, really disappointed," said Kalpna Solanki, president of FXFoods Inc. in Burnaby. "I think it's a case of people cutting off their noses to spite their faces."
Solanki is an entrepreneur who was recently pro-filed in the Burnaby NOW.
While she didn't agree with the way the HST was introduced, Solanki said she didn't think the decision to return to the old system was a good one.
"It's really bad timing," she said, referring to global economic concerns.
The value-added tax system is used successfully throughout the world, Solanki said, and is a better option than returning to the combined goods and services tax and provincial sales tax.
Solanki's company ships products to the United States and has already been hit by the high Canadian dollar, she pointed out.
If the business ships $100,000 worth of prod-uct to the U.S., she said, they might get $95,000 back now.
As a resident, Solanki is concerned about the $1.6 billion that the province received from the federal government to implement the HST, which could have to be returned.
"I think it's going to be bad for people," she said of the return to the GST and PST system. "I think British Columbians made a bad choice."
Solanki is looking at her company's finances, and the current financial situation in B.C. could make her delay purchasing some equipment, she said.
The film industry is also disappointed by the referendum results.
Peter Leitch, president of North Shore Studios, and Mammoth Studios in Burnaby, said it is now a matter of working with the provincial government to improve the PST in the next 18 months, before it is reintroduced.
Leitch, chair of the Motion Picture Production Industry Association of British Columbia, is also co-chair of the Smart Tax Alliance.
"We're disappointed," he said. "We thought it was a good tax policy."
He hopes to be involved in consultation with the province on the reintroduction of the GST and PST.
"I want to make sure we're at the table," Leitch said, adding that the PST was brought in during the 1940s. "It has had a lot of Band-Aids added to it over the years."
Despite his disappointment, Leitch is still optimistic.
"If we can clean it up a bit, make it more job-friendly, that will be helpful," he said.
Burnaby Board of Trade president and CEO Paul Holden also expressed his disappointment with the results. The board conducted a membership poll in the spring, and found members were strongly in favour of keeping the HST, he said in a press release.
"Given how strongly our members voted, it's obviously a disappointing outcome for our business community," he said. "The (board) will continue to advocate on behalf of the Burnaby business
community and work with government as we transition back to the PST/GST system.
"We will be supporting a return to the previous tax regime as quickly as possible and will support future improvements to the PST," he added.
In a followup phone interview, Holden said the board would begin planning events to help members transition to the PST/
GST system once a timeline on the reintroduction is set and it is clear what the new system will look like.
"It's early days yet," he said, "but I think we will once we get more information."
