Has your wallet seemed a little lighter in the last few years Ever feel as a taxpayer that you have to keep running just to stand still Well, there's a reason - it's called "bracket creep". And according to a new study by the Canadian Taxpayers Federation (CTF) it continues to rob taxpayers blind.

It is crucial that taxpayers understand bracket creep. "Bracket creep" results from government policies that prevent the Basic Personal Exemption (the amount you can earn tax free each year) and income tax brackets from keeping pace with inflation.

For example, if you receive a cost of living pay increase a greater share of your income is taxed away because (a) your basic exemption has been frozen, and (b) you have likely been bumped into a higher tax bracket. Even if your income doesn't increase, your actual purchasing power is being eroded by this policy.

Bracket creep is an insidious, politically approved scam that has dragged millions of Canadians onto the tax roles and into higher tax brackets without any real increase in income. But bracket creep has also eroded the value of the GST tax credit and the federal child tax credit for low-income families.

Bracket creep is like a good pickpocket. There's no rate increase to tip you off, but when you reach for your wallet it's gone.

Provincial governments across Canada have shared in the windfall of revenue from bracket creep because all provinces (except Quebec) calculate provincial income tax as a percentage of the basic federal rate. In fact, the recent CTF study on the effects of bracket creep on taxpayers revealed that Ottawa and the provinces have netted a Canada-wide tax increase of $90 billion over the past decade thanks to bracket creep - $69 billion for the feds and $20.5 billion for the provinces.

The study also shows that by 2001 bracket creep will have quietly drained almost $2.9 billion from the pockets of Saskatchewan's taxpayers into federal coffers, while the provincial government will have benefited to the tune of almost $1 billion. The average taxpayer in our province making $30,000 to $40,000 a year will have paid $14,000 in extra taxes - over $11,000 federal taxes and almost $3,000 provincial taxes.

Perhaps the most offensive thing about bracket creep is that it is a tax hike imposed on taxpayers each year without our knowledge or consent. All the politicians have to do is watch the bucks roll in without ever having to go before our legislatures to get permission.

Fortunately, the outcry against bracket creep is growing. A broad cross-section of taxpayer, business, and labour groups from across the country and across the political spectrum are calling for the federal and provincial governments to end bracket creep by re-indexing the tax system to inflation.

Ending bracket creep simply represents the intersection of good fiscal policy and sensible social policy. Until bracket creep is eliminated, all other tax cut measures will be phony and temporary - slowly and quietly taxed back over time.