JUST WHO IS ON PROBATION..

STANDING WITH ONE FOOT ON THE MORAL HIGH GROUND
A commentary on the Federal Liberal Leader’s promise to place
Canada’s minority conservative government on probation.

It must be comforting to those Canadians who have lost their employment, due to the current world economic depression, and, to those facing income loss as their employers downsize or go out of business, to know that the minority government has been put on probation.

Using all the leverage available, from the threat of replacing an elected government with an unelected coalition government Michael Ignatieff succeeded in pressuring the Harper Conservatives to bring in a budget that will put Canada’s finances in a serious deficit position for years to come.

Whether, or not, this pressure-can budget is the right mix, to stabilize Canada’s economy in the shortest possible time, remains to be seen.

Of course on this issue Michael is in a really good political position.

If the budget does bring a quick end to Canada’s economic woes Michael can take the lion’s share of the credit.

Conversely if the budget merely puts the government in an even bigger financial sink-hole then Michael can say they failed to read the economic indicators correctly and therefore are not competent to govern Canada and manage Canada’s financial affairs.

A no lose situation for the Federal Liberals and possibly a real win situation for financially distressed Canadians.

Perhaps at long last Canada’s government will find its moral sense of balance and compensate Canadians who have fallen on hard financial times.

But precisely where should this financial rescue package begin? Canadians have been enjoying the longest run of economic good times in recent history, i.e. from 1946 to 2000, about 55 years.

This is longer than the average working years for most humans. Of course there were casualties along the way, such as, accident victims, a workers with health problems, but no massive loss of employment such as Canadians are now experiencing.

A shadow, of things to come, fell across world Hi-Tech corporations in the year 2000 when flag ship companies such as Nortel Networks, and JDSU Fitel saw their client orders drying up and their stock market shares coming to the end of an unprecedented decades long rise.

Victims of the year 2000 – 2001 hi-tech bust were generally not too bad off. If they had years of experience they usually were given a buy-out which would be more than adequate to see them through to their next job.

There were, however, a relatively small number of Canadians, put in real financial distress due to a flaw in Canada’s taxable benefit legislation that did not become obvious until certain
Employees, who had purchased shares of their employer corporation, under an Employee Share Purchase Plan, (ESPP), and/or an Employee Share Option, (ESO) plan, found themselves levied horrendous taxes on money they never received.

In many cases this unjustified taxation was heaped on top of the taxpayers’ loss of employment.

Many of those caught in this financial vice appealed to the government at all levels to have their tax burden normalized. All to no avail.

As it happened the Paul Martin Liberals had a majority government and could have easily
Rectified the problem with a members bill to amend the taxable benefit legislation.

It appeared briefly that Paul Martin was planning to correct the problem in his year 2000
Budget but as it turned out the best he did was to allow those victimized to apply for tax deferment via a tax form T1212. The tax levy, and penalties remained in force but the victim could keep putting off payment by applying via the T1212 form each year.

The government strategy was likely to allow deferment of these outrageous taxes until the market boom resumed then all would be well. Unfortunately the market bust turned into a full blown depression and those outrageous taxes are still hanging over each victims head.

So if Mr. Ignatieff is putting anyone on probation perhaps he should get both feet of the Federal Liberal Party on the moral high ground and submit a bill in the house of commons to correct this tax atrocity that has wreaked financial havoc on so many honest, hard working Canadians for so many years.

Another insidious aspect of the T1212 tax deferment legislation being that if your employer corporation is bought out, or goes out of business, then your tax deferment is null and void.

So now that Nortel Networks has applied for Bankruptcy protection there are a number of taxable benefit victims spending restless nights and anxious days for fear their deferred taxes will be demanded payment on their next tax return.

Some voters may recall that the Federal Conservative Party campaigned on the basis of fair taxation before the 2006 Federal Election. And to some extent they attempted to keep that commitment when Mr. Gary Lunn, Member of Parliament, for the riding of Saanich-Gulf Islands, British Columbia, succeeded in getting a Tax Remission Order, (TRO), issued to revoke some of the taxes levied on about 40 former employees of the defunct SDL Optics plant that had been bought out by the JDSU Fitel corporation.

What is there about that particular group of victims that justified granting them relief of the unjustified taxes but none of the other thousands of identical victims across Canada.

Was it an attempt to fulfill the pre-election promise to bring fair taxation to all honest hard working Canadians? If so all that was accomplished was to make the situation even worse for those excluded from the tax remission action.

Was it because within the 40 or so victims was a young unemployed husband with a pregnant wife who were now faced with eviction from their home? One in 42 is 2.38 %

Using a straight 2% estimate there would be 20 similar cases for every thousand victims of this outrageous tax fiasco. Why should their situation be ignored?

And allowing those 2% could make a successful plea to the Chief Appeals Officer in the Canadian Income Tax offices what kind of fair taxation system is that?

On a plain logical basis no one should ever be levied real money in taxes against a purely potential, (phantom), income.

As this gross injustice made its initial appearance on the Liberal Party Watch it falls to the present Leader of the Federal Liberal Party, Mr. Michael Ignatieff to restore the tarnished image of his party AND live up to the claim that the Liberals deserve to be restored to a majority government.

Michael already has one foot on high moral ground all that is necessary for him and his party to stand head and shoulders above all other Canadian Federal Parties is to raise the other foot off the necks of Canadian victims of taxable benefits and place it on a commitment to correct this gross injustice, revoke all related outstanding taxes and penalties and compensate those Canadian Taxpayers who have already paid money on this pretext.

The United States Government has corrected their AMT legislation, to put and end to the taxation of American citizens on phantom income, and, have approved a compensation package for those who have already paid related taxes and/or penalties.
Ref:- www.reformAMT.org

According to our government the Canadian Economy is in much better shape than the American economy – so if the U.S. government can do it – so can the Canadian Government.

Now where were we? Oh yes – Where should the Government begin to apply the billions of economic stabilization dollars?

Can you think of a better place to begin than when the first Canadians were taxed on money they never received? Giving people back their own money is not only fair and just it is the decent thing to do.

It may not restore any lost homes or the many broken marriages caused by this unjustified and abusive tax but it will be more effective in restoring the confidence of many Canadians in their elected representatives and do more per dollar to stabilize the Canadian economy than twice the number of dollars spent any other way.

Last – but not least – It will put both feet, of the government in power, solidly on the higher moral ground.

In this regard more than the Federal Conservative Party is on probation.

Victor Drummond ©