Working for a watchdog organization that critiques government waste, high taxes, too much regulation, and inefficient use of your tax dollars is a bit like watching a blizzard full-time- the eyes get weary. To remind myself of how government continues to squander our tax dollars, I offer you this cold shower of "tax waste."
$1.7 billion:
The amount of taxpayer dollars spent since 1968 to keep the Cape Breton Development Corporation (Devco) mining high-polluting sulphurous coal for Nova Scotia Power.
$328 million:
The additional cost of getting Devco off the taxpayer dole, including $111 million for mine workers severance packages, a $69 million write-off for a loan, $41 million for additional mine losses, another $68 million to "promote the long-term economic development of Cape Breton over the next four years," and $39 million already committed to such an end.
16.3 percent to 24.6 percent:
The unemployment rate range in Cape Breton between 1984 and now despite government (read: taxpayer) subsidies. (Globe and Mail, Jan.29/99.)
$150 million:
Taxpayer dollars lost by the federal crown corporation Canadian Film Development Corporation (Telefilm) in 1998. (National Post, Dec. 17/98, from federal Treasury Board documents.)
$136 million:
Taxpayer dollars lost by the federal crown corporation Canadian Film Development Corporation (Telefilm) in 1997.
$1,324.76:
The extra personal tax someone with a taxable income of $40,000 will pay in 1999, over what they would have paid in 1999, had tax brackets been fully indexed for inflation since 1988. (This is called "bracket creep." (Canadian Taxpayers Federation.)
$377.40:
The extra payroll tax someone earning $39,000 in 1999 will pay, over what they paid in payroll taxes in 1992. (Canadian Taxpayers Federation.)
$873 million:
The cost to taxpayers over 20 years of the Liberal election promise (one of the few that was kept) to kill the Pearson privatization deal initiated by the former Conservative government. (Annals of Air Space & Law.)
$332 million:
The amount of taxpayer dollars spent before Ottawa finally cancelled one attempt to automate its pension delivery system, which was not working.
$145 million:
The amount of money given by taxpayers (Ottawa's Millenium Projects grants) for various initiatives to celebrate the millennium. This includes some $25,000 to former Edmonton City Councillor Tooker Gomberg, to bicycle across Canada and "study" environmental projects.