Our esteemed moderator Barry Forward has invited me to contribute to this site. I'm honoured, and delighted, and have been thinking about how to introduce myself. In a nutshell I've worked twenty plus years in non-profit and charitable organizations, have always been on the Left politically, and have worked on a few campaigns.
My first inclination is to speak of my intense embarrassment at our Prime Minister's actions at the funeral of Romeo LeBlanc, but honestly there's not much to be said.
So I'll return to local issues and begin by saying that I like paying taxes.
I like contributing a little bit each year keep the wonderful Lynn Valley Library operating. A good library is one of the single most important institutions in any town.
I like paying my part to support schools and education. I can't think of anything more important than making sure that all children and young people learn essential skills like reading and writing and math, and an equally essential appreciation for music, and art, and literature. I even think it's great that they get a wide ranging education in physical fitness, cooking, or auto-repair.
I like paying for the excellent North Shore gyms and playing fields, and the parks where my dog runs and plays. I like paying for theatres and galleries and farmer's markets and all of the things that make the North Shore a great place to live.
I like paying for (our admittedly poor) bus service, and for the SeaBus, and for the Skytrain.
And of course I like paying for clean drinking water and a reliable sewer system.
Too often in forums like this it seems that all taxes are a bad thing, and that the goal is for no-one to ever pay taxes, or at least to never pay taxes for anything that they don't personally use on a daily basis.
That's nonsense. We're all in this together and the goal is to share what we have so that everyone benefits. It worked in the lunchroom in Grade Three, and it works for grown-ups too.
31 opinions/comments:
Good post Barry R. Welcome. I was speaking with Barry F. recently and he mentioned that he was hoping you might contribute with posts.
Be prepared for the onslaught on this topic.
Cheers.
John S.
Brilliant
Nobody believes that you shouldn't pay any taxes, however at the current level of government spending in order to cover our deficit and to pay the interest on our debt once interests rates go back out governments will need to raise taxes to historical levels. shouldering our children with taxes of 60% of their income is not the way to create a sustainable country.
There are methods that you can pay more taxes by donating more to the government.
You could donate more to a charity and not apply for the tax deduction. Of course, you would not get as much pleasure when most of your donation would go to the civil service and be spent on the actual cause.
Methinks, you like it even more when governments of your ilk can force other people to pay more taxes for such things like studies of the history of strippers in Vancouver.
George it is important that we not forget our past.
Better to spend a few dollars on a study of the antics of a few Cecil Hotel employees than new pockets for our PM to house Holy water.
Care to join me for a visit down terry cloth lane:
www.cecil.ca
Taxes for value chart:
Municipal - Lowest amount and greatest service level.
Provincial - Middle cost and only some local service.
Federal - Highest amount and least tangible return to payer.
I begrudge municipal taxes least.
What this piece of insight cost us?
Winning Research
The Viagra myth
How medicine and marketing made sex the benchmark of successful aging
In 1998, a little blue pill called Viagra lifted the spirits of middle-aged men around the world. But, according to researcher Barbara Marshall, it may also have created the unrealistic expectation of eternal sexual youth.
“Viagra changed the way we talked and thought about sex,” says Marshall, a sociology professor at Trent University. “Suddenly, it wasn’t just a dirty topic…It was a public health concern.”
With almost 16 million men prescribed Viagra in the past six years, its marketing success has given rise to a whole new area of medical research.
“Sexual health used to be about reproduction and the absence of sexually-transmitted disease,” explains Marshall. “But now, especially with our aging population, sexual performance and desire are being redefined as markers of healthy living.”
But despite the nine Viagra tablets dispensed every second, Marshall notes only half of all Viagra prescriptions are ever refilled.
“These new drugs make it physically possible for almost any man to have sex,” she says. “But they don’t create sexual desire.”
The 1994 Massachusetts Male Aging Study discovered that while men in their 60s had less sexual intercourse, they reported the same level of satisfaction with their sex lives as younger men in their 40s.
“This demonstrates that sexuality isn’t purely mechanical,” says Marshall. “And the science of desire, rather than of mechanics, has now become a keen commercial interest.”
Armed with the knowledge that testosterone levels and libido are linked, testosterone patches are now routinely prescribed to men with age-related declines in the male hormone, and are in development for menopausal women with low levels of sexual desire.
“But should we really label changes in sexual activity over our lifetimes, or over the lifetime of a relationship, as dysfunctional?”
Changes in sexual behaviour are an understandable response to changing life circumstances, says Marshall, and a natural (and healthy) part of aging.
While some people do suffer real physical and emotional problems related to sex, Marshall hopes her research will encourage people to question the new sexual “norms” being pushed by market-driven medical research.
Barbara Marshall’s research on the medicalization of sex is funded through the SSHRC’s Standard Research Grants program.
Well, there's a different perspective on all this wonderfully articulated by Will Rogers when he said "It's a good thing we don't get all the government we pay for."
Dennis Bevington
Hello Barry and welcome.
It's been a long time since I've read or heard someone say that there should be no taxes. Even the most dogmatic libertarians argue that governments are necessary for defence and the courts.
The point is whether we as a community are always striving to get the maximum possible benefit from the tax dollars we do raise and spend. As a citizen, I am not willing to wholly accept any assertion that a level of government's spending and policy priorities are completely appropriate or that it is already 100% efficient. I would not accept that in a business setting either.
No matter how efficient the government is, it can always improve, and we must collectively always be (politely, civilly) vigilant for opportunities to improve. That position is not anti-government, anti-taxes, or anti-union -- it's just common sense.
With respect to municipal taxes, the only issue I have is with fairness. As it currently work. Commercial Classes of properties such as Class 06-Business/Other, Class 02-Utilities, Class 04-Heavy Industry, and Class 05 - Light Industry pay a tax rate 4 to 13 times that or Class 01- Residential (in the District)
Although I do not have the total percentage of the Civic Budget that each of these classes of property pay, it can go with out saying that that a few number of businesses pay a much more for the services they recieve. In the City of Vancouver. The commercial class pay over $2 for every $1 in services recieved. Whereas the Residents pay $0.75 for every $1 in civic service. The extreme example of this is the Catalyst Pulp mills in towns such as Port Alberni. The pulp mill must pay $6 million in taxes or 34% of the municipals budget but only consumes 4.4% or some $760,000 in services. Catalyst has refused to pay $6 million and will only give Port Alberni $1.5 Million. A lawsuit is pending and causing much uncertainty for the municipality and the company. This imbalance is exaggerated in a resource town but it is consistent throughout all cities in the province.
By the reliance of the municipalities on tax revenue from business and industry there is little in way of accountability. I do not begrudge social programs and initatives however, when someone else, with no vote, pays the lion share of the bill, I view this as unfair.
I believe the services provided by the cities and districts should be allocated equally amongst the assessed value of all types of properties. i.e. for every $1000 in residential property value should pay the same tax as $1000 business property value. Therefore, if the Municipality introduces a new expense/program or wastes too much the taxpayers will feel the pinch equally and since the residents carry the vote counsellors and mayor must do so accountably.
I think there are better ways to get money to the municipalites from business than from property taxes.
Hey GNNR,
I've always thought that property taxes should be eliminated and an income tax should be put in its place. The same way the Provincial attaches itself to the Federal, the Municipal should attach itself to the Provincial. "x" % of the Prov rate.
Great post Barry, perhaps you will shine some light on this little blog.
Actually, though, I believe all these problems were worked out in kindergarten, in the sandbox. I remember it well.
Wendy
Look at all these good little socialists who love having the government spend their money for them. Aren't they cute? Big Brother thinks so.
John Jensen is almost dead right but he is a tad too upbeat. There is that dark side of government - fast ferries, CANDUs, Cape Breton (one fiasco after another), Montreal airports- that surfaces from time to time. And local government is no exception_ the golf course, the cost overruns connected with the Lynn Valley Library, the $100,000 spend on private detectives.
Dennis Bevington
It is retrograde to tax assets and the property tax is a tax on assets. But rather than tax incomes for municipal purposes as has been suggested, why not tax consumption?
I, for one, hate consumption taxes. The best method to collect a progressive tax is on income and I strongly believe we should only have one system. Income tax should be simplified greatly, the "bribery" and socialist engineering deductions removed and probably three levels established. A zero rate for the low income, a rate for the middle income and a rate for the upper income.
The small corner store should never had told to pay the expense of tax collection like happened with the GST.
@ Anon 10:41 - Shouldering our children with debt? I see in today's Globe & Mail that governments are suddenly realizing that the Baby Boom is getting older and money will be needed to pay for pensions and health care at the same time that the workforce will be shrinking. Well duh. Perhaps if they had seen that coming forty years ago they could have skipped a few tax cuts and banked the money to cover future expenses?
@ Anon 9:05 - Local politics are the place where people feel most affected, or at least where they feel that they have some chance of being heard. Somehow what's happening two blocks away is more important than what's happening in some office block in Ottawa.
@ John Jensen - I dunno. I've yet to hear anyone, especially on the Right, say that they felt fairly taxed. And I am really tired of hearing the Canadian Taxpayers Federation and Canadian Federation of Independent Business bleating on every time that the question of taxes or employer remittances is raised.
Likewise I am weary of claims by politicians (like our new Health Minister today) that they plan to make one entity or another "more efficient" or that they will "cut the fat." Surely after thirty years of funding cuts areas like our health and education systems are operating at a satisfactorily efficient level.
@ GrandeDarkNoRoom - Catalyst gets no sympathy from me. They are a business, and knew the rules when they moved in and set up shop. What would happen if you or I upped and said we refused to pay our taxes?
@ Anon 2:01 - yup, that's what I hire government to do, and why I vote in elections - to have people in place to manage the country, province, or city.
@ Dennis Bevington - Even I wonder how the heck Government of all stripes get roped into projects that run so far over budget. Why aren't these companies held accountable? Why aren't there penalties built into these tenders?
Great post Barry!
Sometimes we don't appreciate what all we get for our tax dollars.
I will take advantage of your passing reference to PM Harper's slight of Host to share my friend's dubbing this as Harper's Immaculate Consumption.
VS
Like Anon9:29 stated, I don't mind paying taxes, but if those who "act like grade three's in a lunchroom" decide how to spend our tax money poorly, we have to protest.
Something like us North Shoreites have to do against Translink for instance. It helps to keeps them honest (I wish)
I too support libraries. But why do we call them libraries? Look at the new city library. The library offers free movies, free games, free wireless, teen drop in (games room), entertainment for kids, computers with unfettered internet access, meeting rooms, study areas, magazines, newspapers, etc. etc.
What is the trend of books being checked out, rising or falling? What is the actual cost of running this library per year? How does the city budget for the library? Books checked out or how many people walk through the door? Should this model still be called a library or is it evolving into a library/recreation center? If the rate of books being checked out is declining, is the ROI of a sorting machine that cost over $500,000 a sound decision or would this money be better utilized elsewhere? Is the city providing the taxpayer an honest account of the costs of the new library? Honesty in government, is it possible or political suicide?
Barry,
There is no single explanation of the extravagances I mentioned, there are at least three different kinds of explanations. The billion dollar boondoggle over which Ms Stewart presided and the local golf course are examples of bungling incompetence. Governments also sometimes venture where no business would. The Fast Ferry and CANDU reactors held out the promise of lavish new revenues from the profits to me made from their sale. This isn't bungling incompetence; it's greed pure and simple. The Millenium line, Cape Breton, the Kelowna bridge, Montreal airports come about because of pork barrel politics. Their sole purpose is to re-elect the government of the day.
So there you go. Bungling, greed and pork barrel politics are always with us no matter what government we have. These aren't simple inefficiencies. Would that they were because they would be much easier to overcome.
Dennis Bevington
I have a few questions about the LEC since we are on the subject of I like taxes. Can anyone shine a light on the following questions?
If the LEC is a separate entity, who provides the accounting services, offices space, office equipment, human resources for this company and where is all this located? The installation of the boiler plants, insulated pipes must come at a significant price and would involve tradespersons, city equipment and labour. Are these costs being subsidized by the taxpayer or how is it being financed? I couldn’t find anything that indicates that the LEC is getting injections of cash from anywhere. Any ideas if financials exist for the LEC’s or does this information have to be released? I had a look on the city web page and there is a link to the LEC for additional information but I see no links to the financials. There is however two contacts on the web page that I assume work for the city or perhaps the LEC?
Anon asks "But why do we call them libraries? Look at the new city library. The library offers free movies, free games, free wireless, teen drop in (games room), entertainment for kids, computers with unfettered internet access, meeting rooms, study areas, magazines, newspapers, etc. etc."
Because, Anon, that what libraries are today, and have been in most modern cities for ten or more years. Those librarians are a pretty vibrant and up-to date bunch.
It’s like a form of socialism. If you can’t afford to rent a movie, rent games or purchase a game console, a computer, internet access, newspapers, magazines or need daycare the library can provide this for you. . Too bad the city didn’t add a couple of floors and the library could also provide some social housing.
Just as far as the communion issue goes...I am NOT a fan of Stephen Harper, but I have to say, I've attended Jewish services during my time back East, and once upon a time a Sikh service here in Vancouver, and also several Catholic services (I am a Protestant)
On each occasion I was never sure if I was doing the right thing or commiting a faux pas, since I honestly myself did not know what to do to properly respect the culture and ritual of the ceremony I was attending without contradicting my own obligations as a Protestant Christian.
So, I understand the position Mr. Harper was in. (Despite NOT being a supporter) I don't really see what the problem was. I don't think he intended to show up that day in order to denounce Catholicism.
I would prefer that we direct our criticisms at his POLICIES rather than at his pocketing a piece of bread.
A little perspective please, Barry?
Ah, there's a fourth category: spending that comes about as a result of misguided good intention. An example from across the inlet is the debacle financial and otherwise of the homeless at the north end of the Granville Street bridge.
So, bungling incompetence, greed, the pork barrel and misguided good intentions are what some of your tax dollars buy for you.
Dennis Bevington
If you guys feel the way you do then why the blazes were you not at District Hall on Monday night speaking on the Annual Report?
I was there but did not speak on the Annual Report because I had a major presentation to do on Permissive Tax Exemptions but I am one of the few who usually DOES speak to the Annual Report.
As it turns out Corrie Kost was the only one who spoke on the annual report - and there SHOULD have been lots of people.
I don't need a report with lots of photos and glossy pictures - just give me the statements and a few meaningful footnotes and I can figure out the rest. I do it all the time in my business and in my work with the Community Services Advisory Committee.
The plain and simple fact is that taxes and financial matters generally are about the UN-sexiest matter Council deals with. Put dogs, soccer fields, mountain bikes, taxi drivers, awards to school kids on the Council agenda and it will be standing room only but if it's taxes or finance and you'll be lucky if you get half a dozen people out.
The mayor likes to say that that's a sign that the public are generally happy with the status quo while I would say it's because the public doesn't believe their personal intervention can make a difference.
The truth is probably somewhere between these extremes but I have personally told Nicole Deveaux in front of Richard Walton that if she dropped taxes 20% while Metro Vancouver and Translink raised their fees to make a net gain of 20% on peoples' tax bills that she and the mayor would get angry phone calls. Walton laughed and said I was right!
Lyle,
What portion of the district's budget is in salaries? (I know there is a new record number of employees earning over $100k)
Did you read Margaret Wente in yesterday's Globe?
Dennis Bevington
I've not checked this year's annual report but historically DNV's budget has been 72-75% salaries. Thus one Council member last year described the budget as the "dollars and cents representation of the workplan"!
(I've got the report but didn't have a chance to read the whole thing due to my advisory committee's report last Monday which I was volunteered to present)
I didn't see the Globe & Mail article - got a URL?
Lyle
Here you go:
http://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/opinions/someone-will-have-to-pay-for-a-two-tier-job-system/article1219654/
Interesting article - thanks for the link.
From the pay scale I've seen, Toronto seems to pay higher than DNV (particularly in benefits) but our folks are well paid and we needn't shed any tears for them.
Anybody here got the link for DNV or CNV employees north of $100k/year?
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