Continue reading »]]> RCMP handed out more than 2,040 tickets to Lower Mainland drivers using cellphones in July and August, and plan another blitz for September.

The numbers are up sharply from the 1,200 that were given out in the same period last year, when the new rules against driving while using electronic devices were fresh in people’s minds.

Supt. Norm Gaumont, head of the RCMP’s regional traffic services, said the surge of tickets for those violating the law are because “we’re enforcing it more.”

He said that during September, every RCMP traffic unit in the Lower Mainland region has been directed to pay extra attention to motorists who appear distracted.

Police arranged a similar campaign last February and handed out “double” the usual amount of tickets, he said.

“Distracted drivers are the No. 1 cause of [traffic] fatalities in the Lower Mainland.”

He said distracted drivers cause more fatal accidents than drunk drivers and handling a cellphone while behind the wheel is one of the most common causes.

“You can’t afford to be looking anywhere else except for in front of you,” Gaumont said. “God forbid that you’re talking or texting and you end up killing somebody.”

The fine for handling a cellphone while driving is $167. Those caught texting face an additional three-point penalty on their drivers’ licence.

Violators are easy to spot, Gaumont said, explaining that officers look for motorists staring into their laps.

“Some are more flagrant,” he added.

Police need to see the driver either talking on the phone, or holding the device in their hand, to issue a ticket, the officer said. “We put members in plain clothes at intersections.”

Gaumont said the plainclothes spotters will alert other officers further down the street, ready to issue tickets.

Hands-free phones remain a legal option for motorists on British Columbia’s roads, the officer said.

eduggan@vancouversun.com With a file from Tracy Sherlock
© Copyright (c) The Vancouver Sun

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CTV News.ca Staff

Voters in British Columbia have voted to dump the Harmonized Sales Tax after the results of a provincial referendum were released Friday.

The tax has been ousted with 54.73 per cent of voters turning it down.

B.C. will now return to paying a 5 per cent Goods and Services Tax and a 7 per cent provincial sales tax. The government will also have to pay back the $1.6 billion it received from Ottawa to transition to the HST.

The 12 per cent tax was introduced July 1, 2010 in both B.C. and Ontario, but the tax was met with angry opposition from many British Columbians.

The Canadian Taxpayers Federation said the defeat was a victory for “common sense and families,” while the B.C. Conservatives said killing the tax is a failure on the part of the Liberals to convince people it was in their best interest.

Jim Sinclair, president of the B.C. Federation of Labour, said the HST represented an unfair tax shift of $2 billion from corporations to families.

“In the end, common sense and the desire for fair taxes prevailed,” he told The Canadian Press.

In February 2010, British Columbia’s Chief Electoral Office approved a petition submitted by William Vander Zalm, a former B.C. premier, to rescind the HST and restore the PST.

More than 500,000 people signed the petition against the tax, triggering B.C.’s unique direct democracy laws that forced the vote.

Registered voters were able to cast their mail-in ballots to vote ‘yes’ or ‘no’ for the HST from June 13 to Aug. 5 in the province.

If voters picked ‘no’, B.C. would have kept the HST. The tax would have then been reduced to 11 per cent in 2012 and 10 per cent in 2014.

The government, headed by Liberal premier Christy Clark, had promised she would cut the HST to 10 per cent by postponing tax cuts to large businesses.

Clark also had offered families with children and low and modest-income seniors one-time transition cheques of $175 per child and senior.

Early this week, Clark said she had a plan if the tax was defeated.

“I know what Plan B will look like. If the HST is rejected, we’re just going to get to work. We’ll just roll up our sleeves and get down to work,” she said.

Elections BC, the agency monitoring the vote, told The Canadian Press on Friday that about 1.6 million British Columbians, or about 52 per cent of registered voters, had their say in the referendum.

With files from The Canadian Press