BC: The health tax grab

B.C.'s deficit is slated to total $5.6 billion by 2011 and the government seems to be hoping that higher tax revenue from greater economic growth will eventually reduce it. However, the hike in the Medical Services Plan (MSP) tax, otherwise known as the health tax, shows how B.C.'s deficit will more likely be defeated -- by stealth tax hikes -- if the government doesn't rein in spending. Read more »

FED: Make Tough Deficit Decisions Now

Make tough deficit decisions now It seems like only yesterday Canada was running surpluses and was led by a fiscally conservative government. Now both seem distant memories, as recently confirmed by the latest news that the Harper government will run deficits even larger than planned and for even longer than planned. Over at least seven years Mr. Harper plans to add no less than $170.3 billion more to the federal debt. It is time for Canada talk about the costs of this spending problem. Read more »

Snowed By The City Again

Winnipeg snows taxpayers The City of Winnipeg pays its lifeguards about $17-22 per hour. Meanwhile, the YMCA pays its lifeguards about $9-10 per hour. Not surprisingly, instead of bringing city salaries in line with those who pay taxes, some officials at city hall are more interested in increasing taxes. The latest call - hiking our province’s sales tax from 7 to 8% in order to “help finance” the city’s “needs”. Consider some other areas where the city could improve. Read more »

SK: Two Thumbs Up Minister McMorris

If you care about the quality of health care services available in the province, you’ll be pleased to hear what the Saskatchewan government is doing. By working with certified health care partners, the government’s new service model will reduce wait times and costs for taxpayers. Read more »

FED: Police Chiefs' Registry Fool's Gold

An Angus Reid poll out this week shows a vast majority of Canadians - 72 per cent - think the long-gun registry has done nothing to prevent crime. A survey of rank and file police officers is even more decisive, fully 92 per cent of them want it scrapped. Yet neither of these telling statistics will stop chiefs of police who are reportedly planning a taxpayer-funded lobbying and education campaign to defend the registry. They should stop. Read more »

MB: Thoughtful response to high crime

Chances are your salary isn’t going up as fast as the amount you’re giving to the government to fight our province’s criminal element. This unsustainable model might be palatable in the short term if taxpayers were seeing vast improvements, but we’re not. Instead of another crime fighting spending announcement by our politicians, we need some accountability for all the money that's in the system right now. Read more »

SK: Send Taxi Study to the Curb

Like most cities in Canada, Regina’s municipal government already has its fair share of challenges. Yet a new report prepared for council wants the city to take on even more duties, such as regulating the appearance of taxi drivers and the age of their cabs. Talk about ludicrous. Council should do the right thing and send the report to the curb. Read more »

SK: Hold the Government Hot Sauce

Did you know the Saskatchewan government spent $28,750 on celebrations for Quebec City's birthday and over $2,200 on hot sauce? The two bills were recently discovered by the Canadian Taxpayers Federation (CTF) and are just a couple examples of how promotional and sponsorship expenditures have gotten out of control. Read more »

FED: Raising tobacco taxes not the answer to deficits

The growing black market for cigarettes in Canada is becoming a larger and larger problem. It is a source of violent and organized crime and it deprives governments of the full taxes from the sale of a legal product. To deal with this problem, governments must not further hike tobacco taxes, as doing so merely spurs black market trade. Read more »

MB: Time To "Get'er Done" Right

So let’s get this straight. Our elected officials have agreed to build a new football stadium, but they don’t know how much it will cost, what it will look like and who is contributing exactly how much? Apparently our politicians have spent more time chanting Mr. Asper’s “get’er done” catch phrase than they have conducting proper due diligence. Read more »