Right in the centre - Biggest scam of the century
- Details
- Published on Friday, May 4, 2018
Ken Waddell
Neepawa Banner & Press
Canadians, and Manitobans as well, are about to be subjected to the biggest scam ever foisted upon us. It’s called the carbon tax. The Canadian government is imposing a carbon tax. As our local MP Bob Sopuck and MP Pierre Poilievre have pointed out, the government isn’t saying how much the tax is expected to bring in or where it will be spent. I think everyone can guess where it will be spent and that is the blackhole of government spending that has typified governments of the past few decades. God knows, they wouldn’t want to balance the budget, service the debt or actually curb spending. It is reported that a family taking in $85,000 per year pays 45 per cent in taxes of all kinds. That is scarily close to half their income.
The Manitoba PC-Pallister government had the opportunity to fight the carbon tax but instead implemented their own version. Now they are in a fight with the feds as to who has jurisdiction and who has the best tax. That’s funny really.
What Manitoba should have done, and still should do, is align with our sister province, Saskatchewan, and fight the carbon tax. With elections coming up in Alberta, it’s almost certain that they will fight the federal carbon tax. Election results aren’t quite as predictable in Ontario, but if the Ford Conservatives win this spring, in that huge province, they will likely add their voice to the anti-carbon tax chorus. No federal government can retreat to the western and eastern extremities of the electoral base and survive a fight or an election, so Manitoba is key to this carbon tax debate and they have gone the wrong direction.
One has to wonder why Manitoba went with the $25 per tonne tax. I think it is a way of facing the fact that they can’t finance every thing they believe Manitobans want or need. Maybe it is to keep the promise to reduce the PST. Don’t know for sure. What I do know for sure is that, in spite of some of the cuts that have been made, there may have to be more made. Sad to say, but I can’t see how Manitoba can have as many small town hospitals as we now have. Many of the smaller hospitals have lost ER, surgery, maternity and acute care, so are they really hospitals anyway? The province is hiring more paramedics and that may well spell the end of several smaller facilities that are still trying to maintain the hospital title.
Past provincial governments have been tempted to close smaller schools, but that shouldn’t happen. As long as school buildings are in reasonable shape and there are students in a community, distance education methods should be implemented to a greater degree.
The current Manitoba government is looking at reducing red tape. Generally, they are on the right track, but maybe there is more that could be done. Why do we have provincial and federal meat inspection? Why aren’t the standards based on product quality instead of the level of finishing materials in the facility?
Why do we have both a federal and a provincial level of department of Agriculture? Why does the federal government have anything to do with health, education or natural resources? It wasn’t supposed to be that way in the beginning.
The basic problem is that all new governments “say” they are going to make major changes and logically, they could. However, they quickly run into objections from unions, from media, from unrealistic people and slowly slide into the time-worn rut of governments past.
We have yet to see what a truly progressive government could do to make Canada reach its potential. I feel Manitoba needs to take a stronger stand on many issues as we link arms with our provinces on each side to keep Canada strong.
Get rid of the carbon tax, reduce useless regulations, abolish all business subsidies (especially to the CBC), including newspaper mailing subsidies (This paper doesn’t receive any mailing subsidy). The plain truth is that we spend way too much on government at all levels and the only saving grace is that we don’t get all the government we pay for.
