On June 11, 2010, Blair Lekstrom resigned as BC's Minister of Energy, Mines and Petroleum Resources, saying he was leaving both the cabinet and the caucus over a fundamental disagreement with the BC Liberals on the harmonized sales tax. He told The Canadian Press: "It was a tough decision but it had to be made. Fundamentally, the HST is it. The people I represent say  ... we want you to put the brakes on the HST." His constituency bordered on Alberta, which had no provincial sales tax and businesses were concerned they would lose sales.