Government nickel and diming it as the Opposition feigns outrage
Work in Progress
By Ivan Morgan
In a month from now government will announce the Fall Fiscal Update, which will be warm, fuzzy, upbeat and tinted a calming rose colour – crafted by government’s legions of communications people whom you pay for.
I rant about this every year. This time I thought I would give you an early take on our fiscal situation, before the government nonsense. Be prepared for a large bucket of cold, dirty water to be dumped over you. By the way, this is free.
Government has announced reductions in our cost of living. One is the removal of sales tax on electric heat. Kind of. The other is the reduction of tax on gasoline. Kind of.
Tax on heat has always been wrong. Like food, heat here is a necessity; it should not be taxed. Government says it will remove the HST on it, but only during the coldest months from December ‘til March. Big whoop. Same with the gas tax. Again, big whoop. They are giving a small break for some on oil heat. Another whoop-de-doo.
These are very small potatoes. Not that we won’t take them, but seriously, this is their best? Throwing us a few crumbs? For a few months? Less than $80 million on an $11 billion budget?
Here’s what I predict you won’t hear in the update: the roughly half billion of your money they spend yearly to pay for Muskrat Falls power. We are committed to paying for the power from that turkey, even if it means our rates double. To prevent your electrical rates doubling, government pays it down with tax money – instead of taking it in your power bill, they take it from your tax bill. Make no mistake, either way you are paying. They call it rate mitigation. Google it. I have another term for it, but this is a family newspaper.
When you are struggling to keep food on the table, and keep you and your loved ones warm, understand government won’t tell you about the $1.2 billion they pay annually servicing the debt. Just the interest, though, not actually paying anything down.
They won’t tell you why they are caving in to Quebec and the federal government to give away our power (and the desperately needed revenue from same) from Churchill Falls for a song. They won’t tell you why they won’t let you decide on the deal, like they promised during the election.
I keep pointing this out because I don’t understand why we accept it. Other parts of Canada and the world are making a fine profit on our resources. We are scrambling for crumbs.
Last year, government projected deficits. This year, thanks to high oil prices, those may be smaller. Will the Tories try and take political advantage of a windfall they had absolutely nothing to do with?
They will tell you everything is fine (it’s not) and they are doing a great job (they’re not.) The Liberal Opposition will feign outrage at the very actions they themselves took not so long ago. And you and I will keep paying for it all.
Not to put too fine a point on it, but we have oil riches off our shores, and vast hydro resources, and we are told to be happy with a tiny temporary break in tax?
Not that they are responsible for any of this, but the current crowd were elected saying they would do something about it and not only are they not, but they won’t even be square with the electorate. They won’t tell you the hard truth. They are hoping the nickels and dimes they toss us will be enough. Rather than actually getting revenue from our resources, they hope bribing you with your own money will work out for them.
It’s enough to make you weep.
Ivan Morgan can be reached at ivan.morgan@gmail.com