Stephen Harper insists that all these corporate tax cuts the federal government have been dishing out will 'pay for themselves'- what he doesn't say is that they will pay themselves with your taxes, while other areas suffer without those tax dollars funneling into them. This creates deficits in other areas than the national debt (evident in reports by Federal Canadian Municipalities stating a deficit in back logged maintenance for municipal infrastructure nearing $125-billion and over another $100-billion required for new builds to meet growing needs) by drawing those dollars away to be used for tax cuts on big companies; basically, the government stays at the current level of debt while giving out cuts to big companies, spreading the debt out over other areas while diverting the taxes going to those areas into paying off the tax cuts. It's a vicious cycle paid for by us, the Canadian citizens.
People are wondering: where are our tax cuts? As companies who profit in the billions each year receive billions of dollars in cuts, such as Vale Inco who made a profit of $10-billion within the first nine months of 2010. Truth being, they can't cut taxes on both ends especially seeing as how our tax dollars are paying off the cuts already. So we see the government's true nature: big business means more than every day Canadians. This is evident when you look at the speed at which the corporate tax rate keeps dropping compared to the almost literal non-movement in personal income tax rates over the past couple decades. This is not strictly a Harper problem, it is a problem related to any world leaders who have the interests of big business in mind over that of their citizens- this seems to be a systemic problem since the 1990s.
One quote comes to mind when I think about this Westernized view, spoken by Mr. Harper himself: "I, too, am one of these angry Westerners.. we may love Canada but Canada does not love us... Let's make Alberta strong enough that the rest of the country is afraid to threaten us!". Which I could certainly couple with this scorcher of a comment: "You've got to remember that west of Winnipeg, the ridings, the Liberals hold are dominated by people who are either recent Asian immigrants or recent migrants from eastern Canada; people who live in ghettoes and who are not integrated into western Canadian society!". Those who hold to the belief that Harper doesn't shamelessly promote his home province are absolutely jaded.
I always find it skewed when Harper or his party talk about 'quality of life', especially in their platform. According to this government, 'quality of life' is all about wages and what kind of home you live in. This Conservative government has brainwashed its vote to support these tax cuts and this 'all for one and none for the rest' Alberta attitude under the guise that anyone else will shut down the oil sands projects and everyone will be poor, jobs will be lost by the thousands- substantiated with no grounds in reality. He has created an atmosphere where anybody who has the audacity to challenge Alberta oil in any forum is labeled un-Canadian, a traitor, against Canada prospering. He has made it so that any criticism about the oil industry is regarded as witchcraft. Soon enough if Jack Layton says anything about the oil sands he will be put in the stockades outside Parliament Hill (even though as much as he criticizes the harsh environmental practices of Alberta oil companies, he outright admits that he accepts the industry to be a part of Canada for a long time- it says this right in the NDP 2011 platform that was issued prior to the recent election). Harper and his government have convinced their vote that the tax cuts these huge companies receive provide jobs, when in reality these across-the-board cuts are given with no stipulations whatsoever on how many jobs (if any at all) will be created. Often times these companies do no create any jobs and simply use the money for internal purposes, such as bonuses and employee retreats; even worse, a lot of times these companies will actually let people go and use the money as sort of an add-on to their profit for that specific quarter.
The real situation is that the government would really be in trouble if we all stopped feeding them income tax. Better yet, they would really be in hot water if everyone knew that it is technically illegal for the federal government to be in the income tax business and that it was originally specified that any direct taxes (such as income tax) were to be taken in on a provincial/territorial level, to be used at that level only for things such as social programs and provincial/municipal infrastructure.
The B.N.A Act (found here) states this in Sections 91 and 92 on taxation, as well as it is justified by the Supreme Court ruling in 1950 (court documents). The Court ruled in favour of the Lord Nelson Hotel in Halifax, Nova Scotia. The hotel was brought to court basically for not forking over income tax 'owed' to the federal government. In the end, the case was dropped and the Lord Nelson went back to work.
This is also true in the case of Gerry Hart (deceased), who had been to the Manitoba Court of Appeal 22 times and had never lost. He represented himself in court and only brought the B.N.A Act and documents on the Supreme Court 1950 ruling on the Lord Nelson case- the only two pieces of evidence he needed. The last time they brought him to court, Revenue Canada was told that if they ever brought Gerry Hart back in the court they would be found in contempt. He was never convicted under the Income Tax Act.
So why is it that we let taxes that shouldn't even be collected by the federal government go to companies that most of us will never, ever work for? Why do we shell out all these taxes to the federal government when it should be going to our respective provinces? You can be damn sure that the provinces, some more than others, could use that extra surplus of cash to fund new social programs, fix up infrastructure, attempt to revitalize suffering industries, et cetera, et cetera, et cetera. If only the general public wasn't so afraid of the government and we made them afraid of us! It will never happen.
Too many people are content with capitalism and content with making money, filling their lives up with things they never needed. Too many people are content to sit by and not pay attention to those who cannot lift themselves out of poverty because of years being neglected by the government.
I, myself, was an apprentice electrician- after being laid off from my job when the economy shit the bed, I was unable to find a job again in Alberta. Faced with paying rent, car insurance (although I stopped insuring my car for two years because I could not afford it), bills and tasked with not starving, I was also unable to relocate to Alberta in hopes of finding employment. I have spent the last 3 years without a job in my trade, working minimum wage jobs to try and scrape by in a menial existence. How does the government expect the many of us left in this situation to change things without helping to create jobs in other provinces and other industries? And that's a good situation compared to those who have no choice but to rely on government assistance- or should I say, programs our taxes pay for. Harper and his government have brainwashed their vote, once again, into thinking skewed; the rich look at people in my position and the people below me as one muddled mass of irresponsible people, a lazy group of citizens who don't matter.
Until these attitudes change, we will face more corporate tax cuts and less relief for our personal taxes- most of which are illegal to be levied by the federal government. None of this will ever change until we all wake up.
What would the government do if even 50% of the population stopped filing taxes? What could they do? Even Steve's new proposal for prison spending couldn't allot enough funds to put us ALL behind bars.
