Recently, the Globe and Mail has been writing editorials on merits of the Tax Free Savings Account. I find it remarkable how so many so called enlightened folks can rationalize bad from good. Your Canadian government put the plan in place in 2009 for your benefit largely with an understanding that now a larger proportion of the populous is without a “Defined Benefit Pension Plan”. As you are likely aware, it is folks in the public sector who are largely the sole remaining participants of this “guaranteed” form of pension which has the effect of burdening taxpayers with legacy like costs. The Globe now has insinuated that your government treasury can’t afford the tax loss of having you receive “tax free” investment income inside the TFSA. Allow me to espouse the one gargantuan fact regarding contributions to TFSA’s. The contributions are made by taxpayers who have already been taxed once on the funds headed toward the plan. Any hard working person has been taxed on income derived from their labor in our country and little do most folks know that this form of taxation was only supposed to be temporary to pay for our efforts in the First World War. I would have no issue at all at taxing investment income (passive income) if it wasn’t taxed first through employment earnings or dividend income derived from active business.
The highest marginal personal tax rate in Alberta is 39 per cent and Alberta is amongst the lower taxed provinces in Canada. While Albertans despise the notion of a “sales tax”, a sales tax in my estimation is less insidious than a tax based on someone’s contribution to their country and service to mankind. The Canadian Income Tax Act approximates 3,000 pages of fine print and certainly detracts from our citizens’ ambition to innovate, produce, contribute, and ultimately actualize a benefit worthy of service.
Back in mid December 2014 eight Wildrose Members of the Legislative Assembly in Alberta stripped themselves from their party moniker and joined the governing Progressive Conservative party. Yesterday, Conservative Eve Adams crossed the floor in Ottawa to join the Liberal Party of Canada. Hence; those voting constituents in representative ridings lost their say in the operation of our Country’s affairs. Floor crossings flout democracy and should be outlawed. In a first world democracy enshrined with a complex web like legal system and an Income Tax Act of some three thousand pages of fine print, we as a people cannot get it figured out that a person’s vote should be sacred?
Amanda Lang may be in the spotlight and bruised from an alleged journalistic indiscretion but I suggest that some context is appropriate. Canadians have long supported the CBC. The funding of this archaic institution is rarely seriously challenged by taxpayers. As a publicly funded body, one might argue that it should be free from political bias and editorial direction but in practice it is broadcast by imperfect people at least potentially tempted by influence in spite of ideals which it may purportedly possess. In the event that you’ve forgotten, the top marginal personal income tax rate in Alberta is 39 per cent and apparently junkets by journalists still go on at the CBC. Yes, I realize we pay “other” taxes as well.
Amanda Lang had taken on a programming role with the CBC which appeared to more entertainment oriented than news oriented and any prominence acquired through this role may have garnered her attention by corporations such as the Royal Bank of Canada. Then again, perhaps there’s more to Amanda Lang’s resume which would inspire shareholders of RBC to condone the alleged payment of a speaking fee. Since she reports on business or has in the past, why would there be no disclosure requirement by the CBC ensuring notification from its journalists who acquire private speaking contracts from corporations? Preclusion from earning income outside a “job” should rarely be the policy but certainly in the journalism business disclosure should be required by a body who professes ideals of fact based reporting.
I suggest that the CBC and its laxity in constructing a programming model in line with its values is more to blame than Amanda Lang for any perception of reporting bias. Apparently, the CBC has now implemented a strict policy on the topic to prevent any future indiscretions. I suspect that Amanda Lang did not set out purposely to trigger a debate on journalistic integrity nor to manipulate a message because of the forum afforded her but she simply wanted to capitalize on a circumstance made convenient by her employer.
The problem with a consumption tax is that it discourages spending and it’s distasteful to an electorate which prides itself by being sales tax free . Implementing a sales tax now would be done amidst a climate of mismanagement operated by the PC government over the past ten years. Pay raises to the provincial public sector have significantly outpaced private sector pay. An entitlement culture has permeated the halls of Edmonton’s legislature and the old boys’ club downtown Calgary is starting to feel the pinch with the oil price falling off a cliff.
At one point our old Premier Stelmach attempted to make a course adjustment with his new “royalty framework” which ultimately had the goal of capturing more of the resource revenue for the benefit of the province’s purse. We know what happened to him and we know what he’s thinking now in the context of the red ink starting to flow from the pens of government accountants and big talk of a new sales tax.
New revenue generating ideas concocted by the Prentice government will all be perpetrated from a position of weakness generated by years of “living for today” and cowering to the demands of public sector unions and oil executives. Is he now asking for a “mandate” or will he step up and lead the province with some acknowledgment that it’s not the average tax paying Albertan who has created the revenue mess – it’s the policies and mismanagement drummed up by his party.
Good riddance. The contemptuous posture taken by management upon entering Canada was truly remarkable. Imagine – we’ll bribe you with a five per cent discount if you fork over your banking information! Ultimately compromising the data without implementing sufficient security measures was the last straw. Canadians stood up to the idiocy. Proud of ya!
