Ontario's tax dollar gold digging

A relative of mine got a letter from the Ontario Ministry of Revenue demanding payment for an error on a business tax form made four years ago. Something that was allegedly rectified at the time. They asked me why the government was going after them when there are certainly bigger fish to fry. The answer is simple, small businesses are an easy target, and so are individuals.

The Ontario government is now sitting with the largest deficit in history. It has already levied the largest income tax increase in history, has increased sales taxes, has put up hydro rates, among other things. Yet the government still finds itself in the red and spending keeps increasing. Most of it goes to the public service payroll, the rest seems to be going to pet projects of the Premier. Few Ontarians seem to actually be benefiting from it.

The problem is the government, in order to pay the bills, will be clamouring for every penny they can get their hands on. This means going after any unpaid back taxes or fines, legit or not, with a vengeance. They won't be going after the big boys with their legions of lawyers either.

Consider this a warning when you fill out your 2010 taxes next April. Make sure you go over it with a fine tooth comb. Any mistakes you make could end up costing you dearly.

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Ontario's eco-fees may be unconstitutional

Did you watch the price of goods go up on July 1st? HST wasn't the only culprit. New "eco-fees" were slapped on a wide variety goods that the government thinks are environmentally harmful. This includes everything from potting soil to washing up liquid. Stewardship Ontario, an independent body set up by the Ontario Government, has levied these fees. The problem is, it can't.

Legal experts say the eco-fees are unconstitutional since they are legally considered to be a tax. The problem is only the legislature can levy taxes and only the ministry of revenue can collect them. It grows out of that whole "no taxation without representation" that got the Americans so hot and bothered 230 years ago.

Direct taxation is when the government passes a law in the legislature and announces it to the public. That's allowed by the constitution. Indirect taxation is when the government sets up an external body to levy and collect fees without informing or consulting citizens. That's what Stewardship Ontario has done. They are collecting fees for the government through businesses, who then pass the costs on to consumers. There was no vote on these fees. No hearings were ever held. No legislation was tabled. The body unilaterally decided to implement them.

The fees have been in place since 2007 when they were first levied on items such as paint. Nobody complained mainly because nobody knew they were there. At the time, only a handful of items were covered. The list has since ballooned.

Environment Minister John Gerretsen seems to think this is A-OK. After all, the McGuinty government thinks the lack of action by the public is a wholehearted endorsement of their policies. Dalton's dream team knows how to play the apathy of Ontarians like a well used Xbox.

Despite the lack of complaints, it still doesn't make the fees legal. Yet another sign that our governments have total contempt for the people they serve.

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Did you get your HST bribe money yet?

Look what came in the mail today. A lovely brown envelope from the Ontario Government stuffed with cash. My HST bribe... er... relief cheque. The figure came to the princely sum of $100 big ones.

Then I thought to myself. I have to fill up my car about three times a month to carry me to my two jobs. One is located across town, the other in downtown Toronto. It costs me on average $40 to fill up my Civic. That's $120 a month in fuel expenses. Come July, that jumps to $130, assuming gas prices don't spike. It's not a lot really but I think it's the principle of the matter. That cheque won't even stretch a year, assuming gas was my only HST applicable expense. In the mean time, the job market is still in the tank and my wages have not increased.

Anyone who believes the HST will create jobs, or that companies will pass "savings" on to consumers is a fool. Each time the government creates a so called "revenue neutral" tax, it becomes anything but. Remember the GST was supposed to be revenue neutral?

Any savings to businesses will be eaten up by their increased tax burden. They too will now have to pay tax on items previously exempt from the PST. Fuel is the big one. So it does indeed work out to be revenue neutral for them, not for the Government.

I'm no economist but I'd sure like to know how this is going to create jobs and save me money. Maybe they'll use the "savings" to build more plazas and stuff them with minimum wage positions; because you know $10.25 an hour part time is more than enough to live on.

This is the second time Dalton McGuinty lied about not levying new taxes. Ontarians' tax burden has spiked but services have not improved. All it seems to be doing is funnelling more cash to pay for the onslaught of civil servants the government is hiring.

Under McGuinty's leadership, Ontario went from an economic powerhouse to a "have not" province. That was even before the recession of 2008. The hole we're in now was caused by years of government mismanagement. While the recession did hit us hard, the government wasn't financially prepared to deal with it. That's why they have the HST. They can't raise income taxes any higher so the government is forced to nickel and dime people to recoup the millions they wasted. When the NDP says you're taxing people too much, you might have a problem. It's making us all live on a little less, for nought.

Coming soon, I'm going to completely revamp Martin's Mill News with a new design. I'm going to clean up some of the old articles as well. Get rid of pointless rants, fix up the rest. Similar to what I did with MMN Tech. Stay tuned for the new and improved site in the next month or so.

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Paying For Others to Have Kids?

There's a bit of a debate raging right now over whether the Ontario Government should fund in-vitro fertilization. Honestly, I really haven't been following this story too much but I do have some comments on it. According to the Toronto Sun, a panel of experts has suggested that the provincial government should pay for the fertility treatments of women under the age of 42 including gays, single parents, and those who are HIV positive. People obviously do have a right to bare children should they choose to. However, the last two have me bothered. Heterosexual and gay couples obviously have fertility issues not by choice. One due to health concerns, the other due to a supposedly hardwired sexual orientation. It is also more likely that the children will be raised in a stable home. Studies have shown that children with two active parents tend to fare better than those with single parents at pretty much every aspect of life. Ann Coulter in her book "Guilty" argues that willing single moms, those who deliberately choose to raise a baby without a father or any other second parent, should not be entitled to government support. I tend to agree with her on this subject. I've heard all to many stories of single women getting in vitro from sperm banks just because they want someone to give them unconditional love or they believe they are unlovable. Not exactly the best mental state to raise a child in involuntary conditions, such as divorce. Choosing to do so intentionally is just plain selfish.

Then there's the suggestion that HIV positive people are entitled to such treatment. I must admit I'm confused by this isn't explained vary well. Is it the mother who has HIV that's getting the treatment, or is it the father with the disease? In the case of the former, would the baby not be in serious risk of contracting HIV? Is some sort of surrogate involved? Do we have to pay them for their services if so? Also, even though AIDS fatalities have dropped significantly over the years, the parent is still at high risk of premature death from, lets face facts, a 100% preventable disease, leaving the child at an equally high risk of becoming orphaned. I get the feeling that this panel really hasn't examined the social aspects of this issue beyond whether it's a parents right to have a child.

Of course this begs the question. With all the children in this country up for adoption, why are we encouraging people who may not be able to take care of their kids to have their own biological children? Furthermore, why are people so obsessed with having biological children to begin with? Many parents who have adopted have expressed that they love that child as much as any biological child. There are thousands of kids out there that need a good home. Simply put, if you cannot have your own children, why would you not pursue this avenue? You will have far greater impact on an adopted child's life than you probable would your own. I know I would certainly consider it if I were in this situation. Rather than pay for in vitro, the government should instead be streamlining the adoption process to make it faster for fit parents to bring their child home, as well as open the ability to adopt any available child they want. (of course I'm speaking of the rubbish which often requires adoptive parent and child to be the same race or cultural background) This would be money well spent and would make a huge difference in some child's life.

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Should the Public Service Be Deunionized?

Unions have a contentions history in Canada. Originally designed as a layer of protection for workers when no labour laws or welfare state existed, many, notably on the more individualistic right, have come to consider them as dinosaurs in the modern world. Whether big private sector manufacturing unions such as the CAW still need to exist is a moot point though. During this latest recession, even these big power houses have been forced to take deep cuts to generous benefit packages in order to survive rounds of layoffs. In the public sector, not such threat exists. Job security is as near to iron clad as you can get. Recent non-partisan studies by Statistics Canada, drawn from the 2006 Census data have shown that salaries of civil servants are roughly 8% to 12% higher than those doing comparable jobs in the private sector. This number jumps to 30% when benefits are included for both sides. The Canadian Union of Public Employees (CUPE), and Ontario Teachers Federation, and the Ontario Public Service Employees Union (OPSEU) are some of the most powerful organized labour institutions in North America. The Teacher's pension fund has lucrative business stakes and actually owns majority shares in Toronto Maple Leafs Sports & Entertainment; the entire package, not just the hockey team. Despite the wealth the public sector unions and their members hold they, quite oddly, are the only ones striking. Toronto's inside and outside workers, members of CUPE, have been on strike for over a month now. Crown corporation VIA Rail's engineers' union went on strike today at noon, cutting train service nation wide. Windsor city workers were on strike for nearly 100 days before that labour dispute was resolved. However, I can't think of a single high profile private sector union that has struck since the recession began even though their workers have been taking a major beating.

Civil servants truly do believe they are hard done by compared to other workers. The unions themselves are just huge money generating machines for their wealthy leadership. I've already touched on that before though. What the public sector badly needs is a process of deunionization. That is eliminating civil service unions all together either by immediate ban or by attrition; not allowing new hires to join the union. There are a couple of reasons why I think this should be done. Am I anti-union? Most definitely, I admit that. I don't think they have a place anymore. However, one of my biggest problems with public sector unions is the fact that you have this large, monolithic, unelected organization that has virtually no accountability to the public, essentially controlling all the strings of government. The civil service largely dictates what government policies eventually get enacted and how they are carried out. They are known to be highly resistant to new governments. While supposedly non-political, public service unions spread and openly encourage strong partisan attitudes among their members. This is why certain governments, notably labour friendly left wing parties, get favoured while those who fall out with the union, such as David Miller, are given the hardest time possible. While we rant and scream about wealthy private lobby ground influencing governments, here's one that is in total control of it. They arguably have power far exceeding even politicians to create policy that controls our lives yet there are virtually no checks or balances against the bureaucracy. The minister in charge of that portfolio may be forced to step down due to gaffes by their civil servants. However, that does not address the issues inherent with the bureaucratic system that caused the problem in the first place.
Directly and indirectly, the unions have encouraged the poor attitude civil servants have towards the public. CUPE workers have been caught physically assaulting citizens of Toronto if they try to cross the picket line to dump their garbage. They are also alleged to have slashed the tires of private garbage trucks. The police, also unionized, have chosen to do nothing about the criminal allegations. Everyone I know has a story of abuse at the hands of the public service. Since they cannot be fired due to the union's power, they have no incentives to treat citizens in a fair and polite manner. Most will do so out of common decency but there is nothing to punish those who do not, and there are a large number of bureaucrats that do that. When things do go wrong, the public has no say beyond the media to vent complaints and nothing will ever be done to prevent future issues.

(To my and my dad's credit, we did fight and win against the civil service. I had been one minute late for a driving exam due to an unforeseen major traffic jam on the highway. They tried to make me pay the fee twice, plus lost pay for the half day I took off work, even after I explained the problem, so I stormed out of there. We managed to get an apology and I got to take the test I originally paid for. Good thing I had help considering I'm not too good with people due to my shy nature. Incidentally, that's the only time I've ever blown up at somebody and I don't intend to ever do it again. However, I consider my victory to be more like the get out of jail free card in Monopoly. There's only one. My dad, who is a civil engineer and worked as a contractor on mostly government projects has a great deal of experience with the inner workings of the bureaucracy. This sort of behaviour is typical. He still remembers the days when bribes were common, before they cracked down on that. They never got money from us. Beyond the corruption and bad attitude, they're also known to have quite a vengeful streak if you point out problems with their logic. Sorry for the long soliloquy.)

Of course all of this is just musings for academic purposes. No politician has the guts to actually ban public sector unions, with maybe the exception of Ronald Reagan or Mike Harris. To do so would require either the Supreme Court to enact the Section 1 reasonable limits clause on Section 2 of the Charter which allows freedom of association. This is extremely unlikely. A charter challenge by the Harris government that sought to change the definition of freedom of association to also mean freedom of disassociation failed. The challenge was originally intended to open up the closed shop nature of public sector unions, allowing those who did not wish to join CUPE or OPSEU to still be employed by the provincial government. The other route is to levy a ban on public sector unions and impose the infamous Section 33, the Notwithstanding Clause of the Charter of Rights, to essentially trump Section 2 rights. That would be political suicide at best. The answer is also not making them essential services. One thing I will grant to Toronto mayor David Miller, he is correct about that leading to arbitration rather than negotiation. Binding arbitration in labour disputes has historically resulted in the union receiving all of their demands regardless of the employer's situation. Despite this, the public's tolerance of civil service unions has been waining significantly in recent months as they fight for rather trivial benefits while harassing and inconveniencing the rabble who are loosing their jobs. Public sector unions are teetering on the brink and the public and politicians may not be so nice when the next major strike rolls around. The end of union friendly administrations may be on the horizon. Miller's current low popularity rating is a testament to that.

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Weeds!

An interesting bit of enviro-hypocrisy last week. Due to Toronto's garbage strike, the city had to spray the temporary garbage dumps to keep insects and rodents from feeding on the piles and spreading disease. The problem, these same pesticides were declared to be unsafe by the city and the province and fall under the sweeping pesticide ban levied last year. Now, the city has turned around and is assuring residents that these pesticides are perfectly safe. So which one is it? Are they safe or not?

I think this speaks loads about the environmental movement. Do as we say, not as we do. Just look at Al Gore's pollution belching trips around the world and his huge mansion while he tells us to cut back. Anyway, this whole issue with spraying garbage dumps in Toronto just shows how ludicrous the pesticide law actually was. Both the Federal Government and the United Nations have certified common household pesticides as safe and warned that bans could actually make things much worse. Case in point, I don't know about you but I've noticed a heck of a lot more weeds around than last year. My grandma's garden is infested with them. Since she's 86, she is incapable of pulling them and always found using "Weed-n-Feed" to be much easier. I had removed them all by hand a month ago but when I visited again just last week, it was as if I had done nothing at all. In fact there are now twice as many! I've also noticed my allergies to be particularly bad this year. Maybe it's a coincidence but I never used to get them until the pesticide bans started going up a couple of years ago. Furthermore, the Town of Milton is currently undergoing a major infestation of Giant Hogweed. This particular plant secretes a highly toxic chemical in its sap which causes extreme photo-sensitivity. If you should get it on your skin or in your eyes, it violently reacts with UV radiation in sunlight causing painful chemical burns to the skin that require hospitalization if not treated soon enough. It can't simply be mowed down because of this. Hazmat suits are literally a requirement for the job of removing the plant. The only way of effectively controlling this dangerous weed is, yep you guessed it, herbicides that the government has now banned. Giant Hogweed is said to have caused 16,000 injuries in Germany during 2003, and allowing its cultivation on your land is banned in the UK. As I said before, the United Nations did warn that this would happen should there be sweeping umbrella bans of pesticides. We took away our most important tool for controlling invasive species that do far more harm to our environment and safety than a bottle of Roundup ever will. With no natural predators and no human intervention, populations of dangerous pests such as Giant Hogweed, rats, and bed bugs will explode. I hope Mr. McGuinty and Mr. Miller are happy for putting people's safety and well being at risk in order to appease misinformed environmentalists.

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Chrysler Now Nationalized... Sort of

The sound of toilets being flushed at Queens Park and Parliament Hill today was almost deafening. The sound of all that money going down the drain to "rescue" failing automaker Daimler Chrysler. The United States government has now taken a 8% stake in the company and Canada now owns 2% of the shares. The UAW/CAW now owns more than half the company's operations while Italian automaker Fiat taking the rest. The Federal and Ontario government made a colossal mistake in forking over $2.5 billion of taxpayer money to essentially the union who continues to deny any responsibility for the collapse of Chrysler. Ah, the workers now control the means of production; Karl Marx's and Ken Lewenza's wet dream. In essence, Chrysler has been nationalized and communized, bringing my own worst case scenario to fruition. Surprisingly I don't have a lot to say on the subject other than saying the government should not expect a penny of the $2.5 billion to be repaid. All it does is reinforce the problems that led to the auto industry's downfall. Nobody will learn anything from the ordeal and it will not be long until they return looking for more handouts. It may be cutting off my nose to spite my face given that it's my money funding this, but I will never purchase a car from the Big Three as long as I live. I already knew McGuinty was a terrible premier and I expected he would do this but I'm no longer sure if I can support the Harper Conservatives. Of course the alternatives are considerably worse and would never get my vote. However, Harper is going to have to do a lot before he can win me back. I wonder if the Libertarians need any supporters.

Update May 4th: One of the top advisers overseeing Chrysler's restructuring says the automaker will likely never pay off its government loans. He made the statement during the company's bankruptcy hearing. Did they really need a so called expert to tell them that?

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The End of the Canadian Auto Industry

I think Ontarians need to send a loud, clear message to the Canadian Auto-Workers Union. The union is protesting today at Queens Park, 5000 strong, to try and force the government to cough up $6 billion for their pension funds. I already discussed this in depth about how harmful such a payout would be for non-CAW members who would end up footing the bill, especially retirees (the majority) who don't receive government protected pension funds; if they receive pensions at all. It is morally wrong to force ordinary citizens to pay for outrageous retirement benefits the union demanded from the American automakers. Union top brass as still insisting that the union members have been put in this position through no fault of their own. They are still acting as though the automakers are bluffing and as if this is an ordinary end-of-contract negotiation. These people are fools and dangerous ones at that. Though I have no love for McGuinty, I praise that he has at least stood his ground on the issue. The province cannot afford to cover the billions automakers owe. The Union is simply interested in covering it's own backside to keep its operation lucrative rather than protecting the jobs of its members.

However, if in the event the government flip flops and decides that taxpayers should foot the bill, I urge all Canadians NOT to buy CAW made cars but rather purchase imports and non-union built Canadian cars. A message needs to be sent to the CAW as well as GM and Chrysler that we will not tolerate them toying with our money as a bandaid for their mistakes.

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An Unpublished Letter to the Champion on Urban Sprawl

It's been a while since I've written anything local but sometimes something just boils your backside so much that it just has to go to print. So let me give you a bit a background information. A developer is trying to build a huge mall behind my house that nobody wants or needs. Local residents, the hospital, housing developers, and local councillor Gary Carr have been strongly opposed to the mall. However, the town council has shown little to no interest in helping these people and the developer just ran off to the OMB when they failed to get the zoning changed. So myself and my neighbours have been trying to get a sound barrier put up since we back on to a major road. I have particular interest in this since the entrance to the mall (one of three!) is facing the back of our house, meaning we're going to get headlights shining in our back windows at night and 24/7 traffic noise. I was woken up at 6am this morning by the developers construction crew. I know some readers will think "aww, poor baby". I worked in construction for several years and by law, when working in residential areas, you cannot start earlier than 7am. We've tried to get the town and developer to put up the barrier for Bronte St residents. It would cost some $120,000 for the whole street from Derry Rd. to Vanier Dr. The developer has only put up $20,000, which is quite frankly an insult. The fence would cost us $6,000 to put up on our own property, which is a lot for us but a pittance for the developer. However, it looks like we're loosing this war.

Below is a letter on the subject that I submitted to the Milton Canadian Champion. They refused to publish the letter stating that it was "inaccurate". All the information it contains comes from meetings and official letters and our own discussions on the subject. It was 100% accurate, as everyone I showed it to agreed. To add salt to the wound, they actually published a notice in the paper saying that all letter submitters should ensure the information contained is accurate! That was a major slap in the face to myself and our cause. This leads me to believe that the Champion is in bed with the developers or is just incompetent. The last part is a guarantee, the first one likely but impossible to prove. I think this letter needs to be published so it's going to go up here, where I'm in control. On the plus side, this whole issue has given me a lot of new inductees for the Idiots Hall of Shame.

When plans to grow Milton were announced nearly a decade ago now, the Town Council stressed that they would try to keep the small town feel. Now that we can look at this plan with twenty-twenty hindsight, I can say this promise has been completely and utterly broken. Milton is walking down the same path Brampton did several decades earlier. It is a poorly planned jumble of development, snarling traffic, and increasing rates of crime. The common excuse is that this naturally comes with growth. In reality, this is the byproduct of the Town and the province turning over our humble little community to large developers who have no interest in preserving it as a small town. When it was on the other side of town, the development was easier to ignore. I guess the statement “not in my backyard” always holds true.
I have lived in Milton my entire life. My current house had a lovely view of the escarpment. Now there is a housing development there and half the view is gone, taking away much of the appeal of living in south Milton. So much for Dalton McGuinty's Green Belt; though his Places to Grow Act is what has been trumping it. The last straw for me is the proposed First Capital shopping centre development at the corner of Derry and Bronte. The plan seeks to cram a Milton Mall sized plaza on a plot of land half that size. Myself and my neighbours have been fighting this proposal tooth and nail. The land in question was originally zoned for light industry, which we were fine with as that only meant nine-to-five traffic. The plan for the proposed plaza calls for five large buildings, three entrances off Bronte, more traffic snarling lights, and more noise pollution. It has already gotten to the point where I am no longer able to use my backyard in the summer due to noise and the town refuses to erect a sound barrier. Originally the plaza was planned to be open 24-hours, which would lead to constant noise and light pollution, and possibly attract crime. After a meeting with the council, it was determined that nobody wanted this plaza, including the housing developers, and the town supported us. So naturally, First Capital took their fight to the OMB and the Town was forced to rezone the property. One cannot really blame the Town for this as the province has constitutional right to override the decisions of local councils. We have people unfamiliar with the community making decisions that affect us directly, without members of the community having any real input. The developer came back with “changes” to their proposal, which was now an “office development” that would include shopping. In reality, the plan has not changed at all since we originally voiced our concerns back in 2007. Indeed it was worse than the original as it included adding islands to Bronte and pushing the property buffers closer to the road. The Town's and First Capital's answer to our complaints? We'll plant some trees so you don't have to look at it. Lovely. We loose our escarpment view, our quality of life declines dramatically, but at least we will have some trees that do nothing to stop noise pollution, which is the primary issue. At the vary least they should be putting up an eight foot sound barrier along Bronte; at the developer's and the Town's expense, not ours. It's the only practical method for solving the pollution issue. Nothing is being done to adequately address our concerns.

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CAW Signing It's Own Pension Death Warrant

Is Ontario legally, or for that matter morally obligated to ensure GM retirees are guaranteed a pension? CAW president Ken Lewenza thinks so, once again proving my theory that big unions are currently living on another planet. I got to thinking about my own parents who have recently retired. They're small business owners. Aside from the money invested in their business and in the stock market, they have no other money coming in. Since they are both under 65, they cannot even collect the pittance that is the CPP. They, like most other retirees, saw their savings plummet when the market crashed back in October. So through no fault of their own, they have less and less to retire on. There is no government safety net for them. To rub salt in the wounds, the CAW is now asking, no, demanding that Ontario tax payers pay for their pension fund should GM and Chrysler go under. The fund was never intended to support the massive number people should a large company like these two auto giants go under. There is only $100 million in the fund while GM is in the hole for $6 billion.

The threads are starting to unravel on this saga with each new story that comes out. There is a clear and present culture of entitlement within the North American automotive industry; stretching from the boardroom right down to those on the assembly line. Every single person employed by GM and Chrysler is equally at fault for the financial mess that the two companies are in. I know Lewenza is trying to protect his union members but to make such a crass statement that Ontario is morally obligated to shovel over tax payer dollars to their pensioners is just outrageous. It was the CAW that demanded, nay, forced the cradle to grave care that pushed pension costs through the roof in the first place. Of course GM executives are equally at fault for not reining in the union and not putting enough aside to pay for the expenses. However, the fact that Lewenza thinks that these pensioners are loosing through "no fault of their own" just shows how arrogant he is. So many other pensioners are being forced to go without yet the government only has a moral obligation to help the members of this one union; and they honestly expect the rest of us to pay for them? Socialism only when socialism is convenient for our group; that's the mantra of big unions. It is getting really difficult to feel sorry for autoworkers who are loosing their jobs when stuff like this comes out. They seem to think that they can keep operating at the status quo regardless of outside market forces and the stupid things they do. It's never their fault in their minds. It's GM's fault, it's Ontario's fault, it's the fault of consumers for not buying GM vehicles. No, never the CAW's. This is precisely why the government should not bail out the auto industry. Like I said in past articles, when you keep handing these idiots money whenever they screw up, it only serves to continue the culture of entitlement and arrogance that got them into trouble in the first place. Of course Dalton McGuinty will fold like a deck chair though. So far, no politician in this country has had the balls to take on big unionism, save Mike Harris. The auto industry needs to be allowed to fail if only to purge the idiocy that currently rules it.

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Top Ten Failures In McGuinty's Tainted Legacy

How do you write yourself into the history books as one of the worst leaders a province has ever had in its history. Simple, just follow Dalton McGuinty's legacy and you'll do fine. Here's a list I've compiled of some of the more notable events of the last five years.

1. Implemented the Largest Tax in Ontario History
McGuinty ran on a campaign promise that he would not raise taxes, even solidifying it in writing by signing an agreement with the Canadian Taxpayers' Federation. In his first budget, he implemented the "Health Care Premium" so that all Ontarians would pay their "fair share" to hire more doctors and nurses due to a shortfall caused apparently by Mike Harris's cuts. The premium is roughly $900 per person per year and appears within your income tax. It goes into general revenue rather than a specific fund for health care. Health care services have arguably have seen little to no improvement despite the massive funding increase.

2. Put the Province in an Energy Shortage
Get rid of your old fridge, caulk your windows, replace light bulbs with the crappy twisty ones as stated by David Suzuki in the Powerwise commercials for the Ontario Government. When McGuinty was elected in 2003, he promised to close all of Ontario's coal fired generating stations by 2007 to reduce carbon emissions. However, there were no plans to build new power plants to replace them. It turns out that closing down just one major coal station, the Lakeview Generating Station, sparked a massive power shortage in the province. Ontarians were forced to put in "Smart Meters" as an excuse to charge you more for electricity and force you to conserve. (As a side note, the debt retirement charge on your hydro bill is actually a tax that goes into the province's general revenue. It is not used to pay down the debt of the former Ontario Hydro as claimed. This tidbit was obtained from publically available budget documents which provide a breakdown of tax revenue streams going into general revenue.) Large sums of money were wasted on conservation programs and buying power from out of province. Money which could have been put to retrofit existing power plants with clean coal technology. The rest of the coal generators are still open as of 2009. It would take more than a decade to replace the plants with nuclear power, a plan that was hacked out just last year, long after the coal closure deadline had passed.

3. Destroyed the Environment
McGuinty had a lot of egg on his face after the Oakridges fiasco. For a refresher, McGuinty had promised during the election to shut down a major housing development along the environmentally sensitive wetlands known as the Oakridges Moraine, near Holland Marsh. Unfortunately doing so was technically illegal since the contracts allowing them to build had been in place since well before he was elected. Being a lawyer, he should have known this. However, I suspect he knew all along and it was said simply for token populist purposes. However, it backfired and went down as his first broken promise; first of many. In 2005, the McGuinty Government passed the Places to Grow Act and the Greenbelt Act, apparently in order to prevent urban sprawl. In reality, the Places to Grow Act has accelerated it to the point of being out of control. Outlying GTA communities have been swallowed up by massive unchecked growth, putting huge tolls on their original residents and the surrounding environment. The Greenbelt Act is impotent at best and has led to housing developments almost up to the base of the Niagara Escarpment, a UNESCO biosphere reserve. Plans even called for putting a highway on top of the environmentally sensitive cliffs at one point. Even Toronto is not immune. The city now has a street literally named "OMB Folly" as a monument to these laws. Environmentalism is only chique when it deals with fake issues like global warming and federally regulated safe pesticides. If McGuinty and the OMB had their way, they'd turn Ontario into ecumenopolis of cookie cutter houses.

4. Caught Buying Votes
An Indian-Canadian cricket club that had asked the province for $100,000 in taxpayer funding to establish their team. They surprisingly found themselves with a $1 million cheque mailed to them, authorized by the premier's staff. That's more than a little suspicious and not the first or only incident. $250,000 was given to build a massive Sikh temple in Mississauga. The owners of the Khalsa Darbar had lost their charitable organization status shortly before that, and had been linked to a radical Sikh separatist group in India. This was all part of an odd $32 million fund set aside for ethnic minority groups. A fund which had little to no fiscal transparency or accountability. Targeting specific ethnic groups, namely new Canadians citizens with free money, well, let's just say it's a little less than ethical. I wonder what the going rate for my vote is. I'm a little short on cash right now. See below for the reason why. The slush fund fiasco would have destroyed his hope of reelection if it wasn't for the incompetence of John Tory. Tory may be a nice guy, as people keep saying, but he wasn't the sharpest knife in the drawer. More like a spoon.

5. Let People Go Blind but Put Breast Implants in a Guy
One of the first things the McGuinty government did was take away eye exams from OHIP coverage. These didn't cost the government much (a pittance of $80 a pop) but it has taken a toll on low income earners with eye troubles. I guess poor people don't need to see. Chiropractics were also delisted so I guess it's ok for poor people to be blind and have a bad back too. However, the government thought it was ok to allow sex change operations to be covered. So it's ok for poor people to be blind and have a bad back but at least they can go from male to female on the taxpayer's dime, and vice versa. Joy!

6. Nanny Statism
The McGuinty government has spent much of its time in office on developing petty bans. You can't put pesticide on your lawns, you can't smoke in the car, you can't own a pitbull, etc. Nanny statism is a tactic used to distract the public from real issues by creating issues out of non-issues. Did you get that? Good. Oh on the pesticides; what happens to all those people who do that for a living now that they're banned? I personally think we should have Liberals banned while we're at it.

7. From Have to Have Not
Ontario went into the McGuinty leadership term as the economic engine of Canada. Now the largest province by populaton is considered to fall under "have not" status and requires equalization payments for the first time in the history of the federal program. McGuinty actually positioned this as a good thing, because the government would now get the money from the feds "it deserves." I guess people loosing their jobs and recent university/high school grads not being able to find work is a small price to pay for "fairness". We're now below Newfoundland in terms of economic performance for God's sake. Ey's the by who built the ship, McGuinty's the by that sank 'er.

8. Created an Unfriendly Environment for Business
The federal government warned McGuinty to cut business taxes to encourage companies to stay. Everybody knew a recession at the time, except McGuinty. It was just like how he didn't know about the deficit in 2003 that everybody else knew about. There must be so sort of massive conspiracy afoot, that's the only explanation! Now many big corporations, such as Daimler Chrysler, and threatening to pull out of the province all together due to the high cost of doing business here. The government is now scrambling to throw money at them with no guarantees they'll remain in Ontario. This economic plan would be akin to me emptying my wallent into the toilet, fushing it, and expecting to retrive its contents from the sludge at the sewage plant a week later.

9. Raising Taxes During a Recession
According to Keynesian economics, which plays a big role in liberal theory, governments have two duties in regards to the economy. Raise taxes and save during good times, cut taxes and spend during bad times. The Ontario Liberals raised taxes and spent during good times, and raised taxes and spent during the bad times. Ontarians got a nasty surprise in the 2009 budget when they found out many staple goods would now be subject to an 8% sales tax due to harmonization. "Gee, nobody's buying anything because they have no money so you know what we'll do to fix that? We'll increase the sales tax and make them pay more!" This is just incredibly asinine.

10. Making Rae Look Fiscally Responsible
During McGuinty's years in office, annual government spending has tipped the scales at $18 billion. Rae's biggest budgets only managed to top $9 billion in the early 90s. When adjusted for inflation, McGuinty's budget is still $6 billion more than Bob Rae's! Once again this goes against Keynesian economics. McGuinty is trying to spend his way out of a recession but spent to much when times were good, so there's no money left. The province will be in deficit for six years, compared to the one year it was under Eves due to the Dot Com Burst and 9/11 crashes. It will take decades to repay that level of debt, and more government belt tightening if we manage to get someone with half a brain running the province again. Civil servants better start making their strike signs now before they're taxes so much, they can't afford coroplast and 2x4s.

Now for the top ten successes of the McGuinty Government.

1. ...........
I'd better get back to you guys on this one. I'm head first in the barrel as we speak, spatula in hand.

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The Foolishness of Tax Harmonization

Ontario plans to unveil in it's budget today a proposed plan to harmonize the PST and GST. I've talked about this issue before when Ontario premier Dalton McGuinty originally proposed the ideal. At first I just focused on those shopping out of province but the fact that many staple items would now be subject to sales tax did not occur to me at first. I make the food, I don't buy it. I guess I'd better start doing the grocery shopping to. The harmonized tax is now threatening to raise the price of staple items over $4. This would include things such as feminine products, housing, diapers, and many food products that were not subject to the provincial sales tax before. The prices of these basic items would essentially jump 8% overnight. To counter this, the government is proposing a $1000 grant to all families making under $160,000 combined income. Then why raise the tax if you're just going to givethe money back? I seriously doubt that most people are going to see this money.

It is incredably foolish for any government to be raising taxes during a recession, especially sales taxes. Large businesses argue that harmonizing the tax will save them money but ultimately it harms consumers in the long run. Lower income earners will now suddenly be forking out more and will likely get hurt the most. I can't help but feel that's a little bit ironic when Liberal governments repeatedly say they are out to help these people. A tax increase at this time makes little economic sense as it will discourage people from purchasing certain things, particularly housing which will now be taxed. For example, the price of an average house would increase $28,000, putting it beyond the reach of people who may have been able to afford it before. You cannot seriously expect people who are tightening their belts during a recession will keep buying things that suddenly cost a significant amount more.

Is anybody really surprised by how dumb this is? This is the same government that levied the largest tax increase in Ontario history when it slapped a $900 "Health Care Premium" on residents in 2004; after promising in writing not to raise taxes during the election. Spending has gone up to $18 billion per year and yet Ontarians have seen vary little improvement in services. Most of it goes to lucrative pay hikes for teachers and civil servants. Back in 2005, it was agreed that Ontarians are rapidly reaching their taxation limits. Cities are asking for more, the province is asking for more, and we have no more money to give them. Ontarians need an election sooner than later. Hopefully the Conservatives will elect someone with half a brain as their leader this time. Going up against the worst premier in history and his long record of destruction sould be a cake walk.

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I'd Rather Take the Mercedes

Now here's a classic example of the McGuinty Liberals once again making it seem like they're doing something when they actually aren't. Yesterday, Minister George Smitherman blasted the Ontario Lottery and Gaming Corporation (OLG) for giving away a Mercedes Benz in one of its up coming lotteries. According to Smitherman, with the current downturn in the economy, the lottery should be showcasing Canadian built cars as prizes rather then ones built in Europe. At first this seems to make sense until you realize nobody wants a Chevy. OLG claims the deal was made ten months ago and they're in a contract with Daimler Crysler for the car. That's right, Mercedes is owned by Crysler, one of the two companies looking for a $10 billion bailout from the Feds. At first it seems to make sense and I can't see why OLG couldn't just make a deal to swap the Marcedes for say a fully loader Challenger, which is made in Brampton ON. However, this is really just nitpicking on the Liberals part. It's one $80,000 car that is being given as a prize in one lottery. It's not like OLG is giving out thousands of foreign made cars left, right, and centre on a daily basis. They do offer Canadian built cars in their lotteries as is, as do many other car lotteries in Ontario. This outcry by Smitherman is a political gesture mostly to appease the CAW. "Fake outrage and the idiots will keep voting for us because they think we're on their side."

Switching gears here, no pun intended, I think it's worth while to examine the whole bailout issue. Out of the Big Three US automakers, Ford is the only company that is not seeking a bailout from either the US or Canada. Ford Canada's CEO put an interesting offer on the table. What if instead of a direct bailout, the government increases the scrapping fee for cars over 10 years old to $3500. That would mean that when you trade in your old car, you get $3500 tax rebate towards a new vehicle. Both Honda and Toyota's Canadian divisions are backing Ford on this idea. Ford reasons that there is no sense in giving these companies money if people still are not buying cars. It is currently a vary good time to purchase a new vehicle but with the way the economy is, that little extra nudge may be what's needed to get people to take the plunge. I for one think this is an excellent idea and it's likely one the Conservatives will endorse. Liberals have already started bashing it though, considering it a waste of tax payer dollars. From my experience, Liberals tend to prefer more immediate, short-term results. The problem is that short-term thinking just doesn't work here. You could bail out GM now and maybe save some jobs for a year or two but what happens after? GM has shown little to no interest in meaningful restructuring and the CAW has been highly resistant to concessions. So if you bail them out now, you'll likely have to bail them out again five years down the road. Additionally, you'll still have thousands of vehicles rusting on car lots, not generating revenue. This doesn't create a sustainable economy or job security. With Ford's plan, you're taking the money that you would have spent on the bailout anyway and giving it back to consumers for the explicit purpose of buying a new, Canadian made car. This jump starts market and creates a more sustainable environment to sell new vehicles. Hey, it's the best plan we've heard so far and we've pretty much exhausted all other alternatives. The least we could do is try it rather than throwing more tax dollars down a hole.

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Racism on the Left Part 2: Antisemitism

Jewish groups around the world are claiming instances of antisemitism are on the rise. Traditionally, this sort of behaviour was restricted to neo-Nazis, skin heads, Ku Klux Klansmen, and other white supremacists. Recently, pro-Jew, pro-Israel has moved to a right wing dominant ideology. Liberals style themselves as being tolerant of other religions and ethnicities yet we've seen an increasing number of attacks against Jews by left wing groups. No more has this been seen than in the halls of university and within labour unions. Currently, many universities in Canada are preparing to hold their Israeli Apartheid Weeks, in an effort to compare Israel's treatment of Palestine to blacks in South Africa. The description is incredibly inaccurate but still holds a powerful symbolism for those who participate in such events. However, such events mask strong underlying antisemitism.

Perhaps the most infamous example in recent years has been at York University. Jewish students often complain of harassment and assault on campus by Muslim and left wing students. It's one thing to oppose what a country does but to demonize its citizens to the point of forcing them to hole up in their student office is a blatant hate crime. However, where are the outcries? Where are the students union and Muslim campus club leaders being hauled in front of the human rights commission? There is an incredable double standard when it comes to hate speech in this country that the left openly endorses. Take Mark Styne for example, a Jew, who was forced in front of the kangaroo courts because some Muslims deemed his work to be offensive to their culture. Eventually he was deemed not guilty of anything yet he still spent years defending himself. We have the same Muslim groups crying from the mosque pulpits and university campuses proclaiming that Israel should not exist and that Hitler was the greatest thing since sliced bread. Nobody does anything. Another example was when Ontario CUPE leader Syd Ryan attempted to black list Jewish-Israeli professors from the province's universities over Israels Gaza action in late December. After what I would describe as mild public outcry, his proposal was eventually toned down to those who work with Israeli military institutions. Ryan is a long time provincial NDP and federal Liberal supporter and as left wing as they come. He received wide support for his backlist idea within the union itself until he was told to back off by the national heads of the Canadian Union of Public Employees. Ryan did not loose his job as CUPE Ontario president though, nor was he reprimanded in any serious way. If I was running a university and had said that I would not hire Chinese professors because of the PRC's rights record, I would most certainly be called a racist. They would throw me to the dogs and I most certainly would loose my job faster than you can blink an eye. Maybe you could turn a blind eye to Ryan if this was the first time he had done such a thing, but he has a long record of similar slurs.

Of course this is not to say that all left wingers are antisemitic. Within the United States, the Jewish community almost exclusively supports the Democratic Party and Barack Obama has publicly supported Israel. However, there is a rather large faction within predominantly left wing universities and labour unions that are antisemites. They say it takes three people to bully someone. The bully (labour unions, university groups), the victim (Jews), and those who stand idly by while the bully assaults the victim. That last group happens to be mainstream Liberals who let members of their parties and their supporters get away with these actions without saying anything. By creating a double standard, liberals have bred a culture of racism within their own halls. It's time for mainstream liberals to take a long hard look in the mirror if they want to proclaim they are the ones for tolerance of all races and ethnicities. People like Syd Ryan need to be publicly denounced by their mainstream liberal colleagues, followed by having people like him immediately sacked from power.

Update 03/05/09: Michael Ignatiff's guest column in the National Post today echoes what I've said here. So maybe some mainstream liberals are starting to stand up against their far left colleagues.

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Me Fail English?

One of my relatives thought it would be an excellent idea to give me a three month subscription to the Toronto Star for Christmas. The reasoning behind it I later found out was so that she could get a discounted subscription. They can't even give that paper away. Sprawled out on the front page of today's Saturday Star was the headline "Race, Poverty Matter as Early as Grade 3". I didn't read the article since I cannot stand the Star but it did have a chart breaking down literacy between race and family income. The chart examined the pass rates for the grade 3 literacy test. Top performers were East Asians (Chinese, Taiwanese, Japanese, Korean) with 68% pass rates. Whites and South Asians (Indian, Bangladeshi, Pakistani, Sri Lankan) tied for second place with 60%, and South-East Asians (Thai, Filipino, Malay, Vietnamese, Lao, Cambodian, Indonesian, Singaporean) rounded out third with 55%. At the bottom of the list were blacks (43%), Middle Easterners (40%) and Latinos (37%) rounded out the bottom three. For income, those with parents over $100,000 had a 66% pass rate while those with parents making less than $30,000 had a 47% pass rate.

The Star of course is trying once again to stir the race and class war pot, as social democrats are inclined to do to keep themselves relevant. There's a whole lot of arguments that can be made here, such as systemic racism by whites is keeping blacks behind while "Islamophobia" is holding Muslims back. Or that poorer people cannot afford school supples and books. I guess poor people have never heard of a library. (They loan you books, for free!) However, there is one huge problem that the Star completely misses, and that is that on average half of Toronto third graders can't read! That is alarming considering that this is a first world country with a properly funded education system. Typically, people like the Star would blame Mike Harris, despite the fact he hasn't been premier for some seven years now. When these children started school, the self styled "education premier" Dalton McGuinty had already been in power for two years. Obviously the education system is failing our students. Of course I still remember my first hand experience with this. I was never taught how to write an essay properly until grade 12 when I finally had a teacher intelligent enough to show me. Children are forced to deal with vague instruction and lack of help from lazy educators and even lazier parents. Ironically, after all those years of getting bad marks on high school papers, it turned out to be my strongest skill in university. Earlier, my weakness in math was blamed on attention deficit disorder. Of course I didn't have it, and once again poor educators were to blame. All I needed was better motivation and my parents pushed me to do better. I learned that I had to only rely on myself. When things went wrong, I was the only one to blame, and that made things easier. When I think back to my school days, I had a startling number of really bad teachers who had no business in that profession.

What about the race aspect though. Why are 20% fewer backs able to read than whites are? A lot of it has to do with culture. African-American culture doesn't exactly encourage its members to excell, just the opposite. They're fed the same old garbage that whites are always going to keep them down so therefore there's no point in trying. As much as I dislike Obama, one has to admit he is a well read individual and I have known many other blacks who are the same. Why are they excelling while they others aren't. Simple; their parents pushed them to do so. If you are constantly told you'll never make something of yourself and that's somebody else's fault, you're going to start believing that. Then again, that's what liberals do, and is why the Star is framing the story this way. According to them, when you or your children fail, it's always somebody else's fault, never yours. By using this thought process, the black community is sabatoging the future of its own youth. The same goes for Latinos and Middle Eastern kids. By the same token, there's still the issue that less than two thirds of white kids can read, yet they're supposed to be the ones in society's good graces getting the best of everything. How well one does in school has nothing to do with their race or parental income; it has everything to do with their drive to succeed. We're seeing these numbers because parents and educators are failing to encourage students to do well. Race based schools won't fix this problem, but hiring better educators who are dedicated to those they teach will. Somebody just needs to give these kids a good swift kick up the backside.

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Wasting Green on Green

The green economy kind of reminds me of a wishing well. You throw money down it fully knowing you probably won't get anything in return. Despite this, something compels people to keep throwing their pennies in. The Ontario Government falls into this category, as do a lot of other left leaning governments across North America. The saviour of our economic woes is going green, and it has the added benefit of saving us from climate change. However, this doesn't make much sense to me, probably because I have half a brain. At best, the green economy at present represents a niche market. How many people do you know own a Prius, or any other hybrid car for that matter. In my circle of friends and acquaintances, I don't know a single person that does. Nobody in my neighbourhood owns one. Yet somehow the government keeps trying to sell me on the "fact" that the US automakers building hybrids will save that industry. It's the same thing with these idiots at Tesla Motors trying to sell luxury electric cars to people, despite the fact that a successful EV line has not been sold in North America in almost 100 years. Green cars cost more than gasoline powered ones due to the cost of the batteries. Right now, people are going to be looking for low cost cars. The reason American automakers are failing is that they've failed to build a low cost commuter car that is reliable. This is why Honda and Toyota have eaten them alive. Switching to hybrid lines, by all logic, isn't going to make a lick of difference.

The second part of this has to do with Ontario's plan to invest huge sumsof money in wind farms. Windmills are expensive and inefficient and nobody wants one near their house. "Tough luck" says Dalton McGuinty. Despite backing down on Oakridges and allowing developers to put up houses on protected land at the base of the Niagara Escapement in Halton, McGuinty is now fancying himself as an environmental crusader. This is just the latest harebrained bandwagon issue for the left. It will create jobs they say. Imagine taking an auto assembler or white collar office worker and getting them to put up windmills. They wouldn't know what to do and no amount of "retraining" is going to change that. These jobs are not sustainable and the whole concept behind them is hugely impractical. Of course, it's another example of McGuinty pretending to do something to fix the problem without actually doing anything at all. I'm surprised he hasn't blamed Mike Harris yet for the economy, though he does blame him for the energy woes the windmills will supposedly solve. What he doesn't like to remind people is how he pushed through the demolition of the Lakeview generating station without anything to replace it, simply because it was coal fired. Nothing to replace it with. Mississauga now refuses to allow any more power plants in the city, with Hazzle "Past Her Sell By Date" McCallion saying they should be built in Milton. We're in a big economic mess and pouring money into niche and dying industries is not going to solve the problem.

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"Like Drunken Sailors": Cities Need to be Audited

Yesterday, Toronto released it's 2009 budget. Property taxes went up 4% but combined with other taxes the city now charges, the actual tax burden for Torontonians increased 10%. This is typical of many GTA municipalities. In Mississauga, property taxes increased about 4.4% but also came with increased service charges and transit fee hikes. Milton increased their property taxes by 6%. It's interesting to note that this is significantly higher than the rate of inflation would warrant. However, the quality of city provided services do not seem to be improving. Road building has been put on hold region wide, garbage collection is getting irregular, parks are getting dirty and untended, water quality is declining. Any resident of the GTA has to ask themselves where all this money is going if it's not being reflected upon in the services we receive.

Of course, then there's all the stuff you here about the colossal amount of waste that goes on at city halls across the region. Milton for example has spent several hundred thousand dollars to install a custom made glass wall, imported from Britain, in it's new town hall. Milton's mayor Gord Krantz jetted off to China last year on tax payer dollars to attend a conference along with other GTA mayors. Toronto's mayor David Miller takes the cake though for wasteful spending, including the multi-million dollar renovation of his own office, 70km of new bike paths that nobody wanted, 30 some odd new programs the city can't afford, a needless restoration of Nathan Phillips Square and Union Station, "green" hybrid transit buses that break down, his jet setting to international environmental conferences to push the city's green initiatives, and hugely bloated office budgets. One of this expenses included paying $80,000 for a woman to water plants in councilors' offices. I wish I had that job. Halton region uses three trucks to pick up garbage, green bin, and recycling while US municipalities use only one. Each truck is manned by two men. Toronto's NDP council has given into union demands for exorbitant wage hikes, which the city cannot afford. This equates to vote buying. The city has refused to contract out work, which would save money, and has replaced current contracted jobs with public service union ones. This is only the tip of the iceberg for questionable spending at the region's city halls.

Lets face facts here, we have a major problem on our hands when it comes to how Ontario's municipalities spend tax dollars. Every time the federal or provincial budget comes out, you hear the mayors screaming for more funding from the higher levels. It is true that cities are now paying for things that they didn't used to, such as welfare, but there is just so much waste, it's mind boggling. Right now, we are in a recession. Money is tighter than ever and yet the cities are asking for more and more tax money. Money that people just don't have. A lot of people are being forced out of their homes simply because they cannot afford to pay what the city wants. This is part of why Toronto has seen a massive exodus of residents in the last year. Housing is cheaper outside of the city.

Cities say they have a massive funding shortfall and cannot afford to pay for services, and therefore have to raise taxes by huge amounts. However, there is a great deal of questionable practices going on. It's time the Province stepped in and did something about the issue. Ontario needs to appoint a series of independent auditors and ombudsmen to dive into the books of our municipalities in order to get a clear picture of what's really going on. It's obvious that they cannot keep their own houses in order and unfortunately, this is the only way we're going to get some answers and solve the problem. Additionally, Ontario needs to repeal the City of Toronto Act to remove the special taxation powers and extended terms the McGuinty government foolishly gave to municipalities. All it has done is open the door to more mismanagement and corruption. Lastly, please, get out there and vote in your next municipal election. One of the reasons that city councils aren't being transparent to citizens is because nobody votes, so they don't care what they do. By not voting, you're basically giving these people who get in again and again free reign to do whatever they want.

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McGuinty's HST Plan Nickle & Diming

When I need to buy computer parts online, I usually buy then from British Colombia for a couple of reasons. First of all, Ontario doesn't have any decent places to buy parts. Secondly, it's cheaper, namely because I don't have to pay PST on items purchased out of province. That is, provided that my province doesn't have a harmonized sales tax. HST basically combines GST and PST into one tax that is collected by the federal government, where they then give the PST cut to the provinces. Dalton McGuinty is putting forth the idea to implement HST in Ontario. He claims it will help Ontario businesses. He is right in a sense since it will make online shopping outside of Ontario more expensive, thus forcing consumers to adopt more local means. However, I see it as just more nickle and diming from the tax obsessed premier. The tax basically implements protectionism within your own country by punishing people who choose to purchase things from another region. It all boils down to just another scheme to get more tax dollars from Ontario residents.

This is pretty typical for the McGuinty Liberals though. It is extremely easy to implement and the feds are ultimately the ones doing most of the work. Liberals like quick fix, one hour photo solutions to complex problems. Lets face it, most Ontarians are not regularly buying things out of province. It punishes a minority while not fixing the economic slump that it seeks to address. However, to more feeble minded individuals, it gives the illusion that McGuinty is doing something to fix the economy when he actually isn't. Of course he should be encouraging investment in Ontario but taxation is not a good way of doing so during a recession. The appropriate way is to launch promotional campaigns, cut business taxes, and make Ontario an overall attractive place for business; rather than nickle and diming residents and throwing huge sums of money at dying industries.

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Remember, These People Are Professionals...

It's been two years since I wrote a piece mocking academics for being out of touch with modern society. I think the York University strike by teaching assistants and contract staff has only reinforced my negative view point of academia. The Canadian Union of Public Employees has become Canada's second most powerful union. It is perhaps only superseded by the wealthy Ontario Teachers Federation. At one time, people only entered the public service out of a sense of duty, or that was the only job one could get. People never joined the public service to make money. Now, it seems that notion has done a complete 180. Today, public employees are some of the best paid workers in the country, have iron clad job security, and benefits even most can only dream of. Still, that's not enough for these people. It seems like every time their contracts go up, they go to the bargaining table, turn down lucrative new contracts, fain outrage, and go on strike. In the end, they're forced back to work by the legislature and end up getting their exorbitant demands. This is exactly what has been going on at York U, where striking staff refused a 9% pay increase when most of us will be lucky to see a raise at all. Of course you get the same pithy slogans about the strike not being about money and that they're fighting for something bigger, like more funding for post secondary institutions. Please. Is that the best they can do? The strikers at York U have effectively held students hostage. They have become the real victims in a fight about pure greed. It's extortion. The legislature is now debating back to work legislation, which CUPE has determined to fight since it would effectively end their scheme. Of course, we get another pithy slogan about that fight will protect all unions since any big corporation will just be able to get parliament to force striking workers back on the job.

Of course, all these slogans and actions we've seen and heard a million times. Today, CUPE's job action reached a new low. Today, four CUPE members during a march to Queens Park to protest the back to work legislation allegedly assaulted Toronto Police officers. Eye witness reports noted that police were trying to keep a lane free for emergency vehicles, which is standard proceedure in these situations. The strikers kept repeatedly moving into the lane when police moved in to corral them. An altercation broke out where witnesses said the strikers attacked first. Of course, CUPE is claiming police brutality and that they had done nothing wrong. I believe the union did this deliberately to make a political statement. This is a typical protest tactic that you see at G8 summits. However, there's a big difference here. These people are supposed to be professional academics. Does refusing orders to keep a lane free for safety reasons and assaulting police sound professional to you? Remember that these are the same people who are educating the next generation. This move will most certainly backfire on the union. York's reputation has already been severely tarnished by the strike and this is just another black eye. The university has already seen enrollment drop by 25% for the 2009/2010 school year. If enrollment and revenue declines, the university will have no choice but to lay off staff. In doing this, CUPE has effectively cut off its nose to spite their face. Though the allegations have not been proven in court, the university would be wise to fire the employees who were involved in the altercation.

The altercation is not simply a black eye on York or even CUPE alone but one on academia as a whole. Academics have always been radicals, or at least for the last fourty years. Take Bill Ayres for example. However, it is generally expected that professional people do not act in a violent manner towards other human beings, no matter who they are. On one hand you've always had academics proclaiming to be passificts, then you have them attacking police. These actions drag down the public perception of their entire profession. This is why I believe the government has to take swift action against CUPE and make an example out of them. This behaviour is not appropriate.

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Message to York U Students: Sue CUPE

For the years I spent in university, the students' union complained to no end about high tuition fees. Indeed, education today is a vary expensive prospect no matter where you go to school. Now imagine you fork out $5000 or more in tuition and are suddenly forced out of class by TAs on an unjust labour strike. That would leave your blood boiling. Well, that's exactly what's happening at York University, where apparently the working conditions (in a fully heated and air conditioned building with comfy offices) border on being Dickensian. The TAs are fighting for better benefits and the university has already tabled a vary generous 9%+ raise over three years. During this recession, most of the real world will be lucky to get a raise at all over that period, let alone 9%. Of course you get the usual BS that it's not just about money but we all know it is. It just proves how decadent the public services unions have become that they have the gall to strike over such petty things when people are loosing their jobs left right and centre, with thousands more unable to find work at all. It just shows that they live in a total fantasy world.

The Ontario government tabled legislation today to force the striking workers back on the job. However, Howard Hampton has chosen to filibuster the bill, which is highly irresponsible. Ironically, students are one of the NDP's biggest constituencies, which Hampton has effectively alienated. Many students struggle to pay for education and now that money they paid for a service they didn't receive is gone forever. It is a breech of contract in my opinion between students and the university & instructors. The province has promised to increase student loans to the affected students. However, saddling them with even more debt is not a solution. It does not look like McGuinty is going to provide any real aid. My advice to York students would be to launch a class action law suit against the Canadian Union of Public Employees. CUPE has to be punished for stealing the education and money from hard working students. The union should pay back every penny owned to students for holding them hostage. A successful suit would set a powerful precedent, making unions think twice about going on frivolous strikes, which this one is.

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