Deep in debt
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By ROY CLANCY -- Calgary Sun
Work real hard and what do you get?
Another day older and deeper in debt.
-- with apologies to Tennessee Ernie Ford
The late country singer recorded a variation of those words back in 1955
about the plight of coal miners who always owed more to the mining company
store than they earned in wages.
Things haven't changed.
A news story the other day revealed that debt levels of ordinary Canadians
have hit a new high. We now owe, on average, more than a year's pay each in
consumer and mortgage debt.
Not only that, Statistics Canada reports the wages of Canadian workers are
barely keeping up with the cost of living.
Despite this sobering reality, all levels of government hold out their hands
for a bigger chunk of our change. From rising federal CPP deductions to the
hike in provincial health-care premiums, we're being nickeled and dimed into
poverty.
School boards demand we turn over a small ransom in assorted "fees" to allow
our kids to partake of public education.
The city treats us to a splashy brochure telling us how wonderful it is our
property taxes will rise only a maximum of 5%.
Meanwhile, courtesy of honest politicians like Ald. Ric McIver, we learn the
bite will hurt much more once you take assorted fee hikes into account.
We need more watchdogs like McIver standing guard over our wallets, but
alas, they are in short supply.
The same glossy city brochure proclaims, with some justification, that the
feds and province reap the lion's share of tax revenue and don't return
enough to enable the city to cover the cost of skyrocketing growth.
Perhaps there is a need to adjust revenue-sharing between the three levels
of government, but more important, no matter where the money goes, it all
comes from the same place.
That is, from the pockets of taxpayers, who are not only deeper in debt, but
working longer hours to make ends meet.
Despite a lot of lip service about tax cuts in recent years, the government
spends our money as freely as ever.
During an eye-opening contract with the Department of Justice years ago, I
used to joke that Ottawa is the largest one-company town in Canada.
I also made the observation -- before making a hasty departure from "public
service" -- that if ordinary Canadians could see the shameful waste of their
tax dollars, there would be a tax revolt.
Lately, we've been treated to a eyeopening sample of the lavish spending
habits of politically connected bureaucrats.
From $30,000 in "hospitality" costs racked up in two years by the former
assistant to Sheila Copps to the $140 tip generously offered a waiter by
National Gallery director Pierre Theberge, Canadians are finally getting a
taste of the lifestyles of people who consider themselves a class above the
rest of us.
Then again, why shouldn't they imitate their political masters? Cabinet
ministers such as Copps are able to bill taxpayers for thousands in expenses
without even offering receipts.
The feds are not alone in their frenzy of largesse. Alberta's spending on
government programs is 65% higher than it was seven years ago, while
Alberta's population has grown only 14%.
All legitimate spending? Just this week, Seniors Minister Stan Woloshyn and
three highly paid senior bureaucrats visited the Sun to explain why they
wanted to safeguard taxpayers' money spent on the homeless.
I'm not sure if they had other business in Calgary, but the cost of their
flight from Edmonton alone could have fed and housed a homeless person for a
month.
Canadians are perhaps a little too easygoing when it comes to taxation. Born
and raised in the land of medicare, they trust government to keep their
children healthy and well-educated and allow them to retire and live out
their old age with dignity.
This comfortable notion is now getting a big shake-up.
While a shocking number of Canadians don't believe they will ever be able to
retire, an imperious Governor General who is "above politics," takes a
million-dollar circumpolar junket.
As health-care services erode through underfunding, we read of the
scandalous spending in the office of former privacy commissioner George
Radwanski, a Liberal appointee.
Post-secondary students are learning how to become debtors at an
increasingly early age. Many are being crushed by the rising debt load
forced upon them by massive increases in tuition fees.
And most haven't even started to pay taxes.
Canadian taxpayers have fulfilled their part of the bargain.
Now all levels of government should do the same.
It's time to put the brakes on the gravy train.
