Changes needed to help Canadians
I have been privileged for many, many years of life, and to observe and take part in the ongoing political and economic changes in our Canadian democracy. The freedoms and rights we have today had to be garnered with dedicated and united hard bargaining and work. I’m speaking of the working men and women of our society.
Segments of these hard-gained laws and conditions have dissipated, especially in the big-box retail outlets. Their ability to promote “best prices” is possible for them because most of the employee staff are only on 20-hours-per-week schedules, and not included in their wages are several of the benefits that are so vital, especially for the young mothers and university youth who carry a tremendously heavy financial load.
On another front, our banks are making huge profits and are reported to be funnelling the money of the rich to offshore tax-free havens, and now reports of the Panama Papers that our Canadian banks are receiving so-called bad money from out-of-country sources. Tax evading is an ongoing scheme for the rich, and you would think your bank, with all the income from all these sources, could part with a few more than .05 per cent on your deposit. You and I are paying these fat cats’ share of taxes.
Again on the subject of banking, one of the gentlemen in our SACPA group researched a tax agenda from 1938 to 1974, when the Bank of Canada had been giving the three branches of government — federal, provincial and municipal — loans tax free! This letter has been sent to Finance Minister Bill Morneau. This sensible function should be reinstated, and the writer claims there would be a saving of up to $60 billions for the federal government annually
The Trudeau government got in with the promise of running the country on a deficit, and now with a $30 billion deficit, there still has not been any make-work programs after a year of governing. I believe that an Order in Council could begin these tax-free loans to the various governments and get the necessary countrywide work projects going.
Procrastination goes on and on, so is it any wonder that the public’s faith in politicians is lost? It is often heard that “They are all the same,” and it doesn’t matter which party that they represent. Frank J. Toth Lethbridge