Recently I received a small parcel from Idaho. Postal cost: $5.99US
($6.25CDN). I asked the postal clerk how much it was to mail it back.
She weighed it and said, “$11.40—over 75 percent more, but,” she
added, “it’s going out of the country so you don’t have to pay GST. If
it were going to a Canadian address you’d have 13 percent tacked
on.”
I raised this issue with my MP, Peter Stoffer, and he explained the
post office is no longer a government service but is now a Crown
corporation. As such, they are operating to earn annual profits, which
they turn over to the federal government. They have turned over
hundreds of millions over the years. Canada postal service? Just
another way to gouge the public.This great Canadian institution sells
flat-rate shipping to the USA giant eBay but refuses it to Canadians
and Canadian companies.
A newer outfit on the scene, the Canadian Internet Registration
Authority, or CIRA, was deemed necessary and mandated into existence by
Ottawa (but not paid by Ottawa). The extra $8 that it costs to register
a .ca domain name goes to these people. They collect over $10 million a
year from Canadians using .ca websites.
Last—in this letter—but not least: the combined $76 billion
drained from UIC and Canada pensions. Successive federal governments
have raided these funds, taking $56 billion from UIC and $20 billion
from the pension funds. Illegal, you say? It would be in the private
sector, but the politically appointed hacks on the Supreme Court ruled
in Ottawa’s favour in both these cases. How does Ottawa plan on
covering these losses?
Easy: by going back into the bottomless pockets of the Canadian tax
payer and worker. UIC rates will be rising shortly. Every day it
becomes clearer that (a) there are two sets of laws, one for the masses
and one for government, and (b) if the governments don’t like the laws
governing them, ignore them (HRM council), change them (provincial
NDP), or have the courts okay what you did (feds).
Perhaps it’s time we just all sat down and did nothing until
federal, provincial and civic governments start sending our money with
the dedication and care that they collect it from us.—Bruce
DeVenne, Lower Sackville
This article appears in Oct 29 – Nov 4, 2009.
