Ontario’s Eco Tax Not Even Managed

A new tax in Canada’s largest province is so poorly mismanaged, that one of the country’s largest retailers has had to issue a public apology for overcharging customers.

Ontario’s eco-fee (provincial politicians call it a “fee” instead of a “tax” because they snuck it through without any debate – public or otherwise) went into effect this past July 1.

The Ontario government claims the new “fee” is supposed to discourage people from purchasing products harmful to the environment, and it is supposed to be applied to the costs associated with recycling and disposing of the harmful products it is applied too.

Learn more about the fee.

However, it appears not only was this new tax – whoops I mean “fee” – brought in without any debate, there was no thought as to how to manage it.

Canadian Tire apologized today, for overcharging customers on a biodegradable shower cleaner sold in its stores. The large Canadian retailer says it will gladly refund the overcharged amount to customers who bring in their receipts.
Canadian Tire blames its computerized Point of Sale system for the error, and says it has since been corrected.

Why is an environmentally-friendly “fee” is being charged on an environmentally-friendly product? Isn’t the whole nature of the eco-fee to be charged on products harmful to the environment, to encourage environmentally-friendly product purchases?

Maybe this mix-up is because the provincial body charged with managing the eco-fee admits they don’t know what they are doing. Stewardship Ontario, admitted it doesn’t have a way to monitor or control how much retailers are charging.

This brought heavy fire from the province’s Environment Minister John Gerretsen, who warned the organization that if it doesn’t implement an auditing system to ensure correct and consistent fees are collected, he’ll end the program.

That’s government talk for – “hey, if you don’t do my job and make me look good, I’ll shut down the program, and you’ll be moved to another government program.”

(No one ever gets fired anymore.)

Seriously, isn’t it the Environment Minister’s job to create the policies and procedures for his own ministry?

Gee Mr. Gerretsen, wouldn’t it have been a better idea to discuss, debate and then decide how to implement this eco-fee BEFORE you put it in place? Don’tcha-think?

But no, you just had to get this tax into place as fast as possible, without any input from anyone other than your own closely guarded circle of – did you talk to anyone about this? Anyone at all?

Naturally, the opposition parties are coming down on the Ontario government over this mess. One politician even saying if elected he’ll kill this new tax right away.

When was the last time you ever heard of a politician canceling a tax completely?

Never?

Me either.

What’s worse, is now our politicians are using our passion for the planet against us. Instead of instituting green initiatives which really are environmentally-friendly, they are instituting policies which just pad their pocketbooks, using the environment as an excuse.

No wonder politicians get a bad rap, and jokes abound about just how far you can trust ‘em.

What will you do next Minister Gerretsen, paint a baby green, toss a sash on it reading “Earth” and then kiss it in front of the cameras for a photo op?

Just remember, if you do that – don’t use the lead-based paint.

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A Not So Happy Canada Day, Eh?

Tomorrow is Canada Day – July 1 – 143 years of our confederation. We’re not as old nor do we have the history of our big brother to the south – the US of eh, eh?

But we Canadians have a lot to be proud of.

Or we did.

Once upon a time.

Our population continues to grow – Statistics Canada, the federal government agency which keeps track of such things, tells us we’re now a country of over 34 million people. They also tell us that now 50 percent of our population wasn’t born here, and just over half of those people don’t speak either of our two official languages.

Wait a sec . . .

How can you go into someone’s home, take up roots there, and re-arrange the furniture without anyone minding?

That’s what has been going on in our home and native land, mostly in our large urban areas. There are streets in Toronto and Vancouver where if you don’t speak Chinese or Hindu, you won’t get very far – in fact you are made to feel uncomfortable intentionally.

If you ask the residents or business owners on those streets for directions, you’ll be told: “sorry, I don’t speak any English.” Funny though, they always speak perfect English when they tell you they don’t.

Newly settled parents to our great land even tell their kids not to play with anyone who’s not like them after school – they send them to special schools where all the kids are from families of their homeland, so during school they are free to do as they wish.

How unCanadian is that?

We warmly welcome newcomers to our great land, only to be given the shaft.
If and when we humble and polite Canadians mumble something about that being wrong, how it is best for all the kids in the neighbourhood to play together, the newcomers join forces upon us, using our own Human Rights and Freedoms laws against us, claiming we are in the wrong for discriminating against them.

Being the peace-loving, good natured and overly polite Canadians we are, we go back and sit on the bench, keeping it warm, hoping that one day the newcomers to our land will feel comfortable enough to break bread with and be our friends.

Problem is, the newcomers to our once great land are already quite comfortable, living their lives just as they did back in their native land, without you or me.

Essentially, they have already established their own country within our country.
They have setup their own culturally-specific schools, so that their kids will never have to mix and mingle with anyone outside their race or creed. They create their own restaurants, shops and businesses, hiring only others from their homeland, so they don’t have any misunderstandings with you or me. They read newspapers written for them, in their native languages, listen to music and radio stations in their native tongues – hell even good old CBC – Canada’s national broadcaster – is televising Hockey Night In Canada in Hindu so the newcomers can watch our game, without learning English or French.

You know something is amiss when Canadian hockey icon Don Cherry is replaced – period.

It isn’t just our national broadcaster, all government institutions and many big businesses are feeding the storm, making it one nasty beast.

The running joke used to be, in order to work for the Government of Canada, you had to like poutine on your hockey puck. In other words, you had to be fully bilingual, in both our official languages of English or French.

Not so any more – oh the federal government still hires fully bilingual people, but so long as you speak English OR French AND another language, they’ll almost certainly take you. Government brass love to brag about how they offer their services in over 120 different languages.

Not that those who come to this great land don’t deserve the same benefits as those who were born here. I’m sure whatever civil servant or politician came up with the notion of offering government services in a multitude of languages had the noblest of intentions.

However noble the initial intentions were, the trends and statistics clearly show that was one of many errors of judgement.

We’re being kicked out of our own country, slowly and silently by newcomers that just don’t want anything to do with Canadians.

Oh they’ll cry racism, and proudly hold up their citizenship cards – we give those things to anyone these days – another fault of our governmental policy.

But they are the ones being racist.

We aren’t the ones telling our kids not to play with their kids. We aren’t the ones not hiring people because they don’t look and sound like us. We aren’t the ones intentionally making others that don’t look like us or sound like us feel awkward or uncomfortable.

We’re just being typically Canadian, politically correct, peaceful, welcoming anyone into our homes, our schools, our workplaces – our lives.

Maybe we shouldn’t be so damn welcoming?

Happy Canada Day.

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President’s State of the Union Wasn’t Very Stately

American President Barack Obama says his citizens aren’t suffering from a deficit of dollars, but also one in terms of confidence in government.

This stems from the U.S. leader’s annual State of the Union Address, televised across the States and around the world on Wednesday night. The annual speech is a long running tradition in American politics, where the president provides some insights into what he and his ruling government hope to accomplish in the coming year.

Ranking high on that priority list, as per previous leader’s addresses: the economy and healthcare.

In fact, for a world leader who just a year ago was so high atop a pedestal he had a rock star-like Obamamania following, there wasn’t really anything all that rock shattering in this President’s plans for his people.

Last year, on the weeks and days leading up to his inauguration ceremony, there was a distinct buzz around the world, as the United States of America – the most powerful nation on the planet – was about to swear in their first non-White president.

Millions of people from all over the world filled planes, trains and buses, overbooking hotels, and flooded America’s capital city, all for the chance to just be where history was to be made. Most had high hopes that it wasn’t just his skin color that got him the job, but his innovative ideas, his unique vision of where he could lead the United States of America.

President Obama has put forward reforms which are controversial, including his economic and healthcare plans. He even has done something no other world leader has done in less than a year in power – taking home the great honor of winning a Nobel Peace Prize.

But what exactly has the American leader done which really stands out? What has President Obama actually done to the betterment of humankind?

Since the invention of the soapbox, there have been many people taking the opportunity to stand on said soapbox, screaming at the top of their lungs about the horrid state of the world, and what they can do to make things right. But few have actually taken the time to step off that soapbox, and act on those thoughts making a real difference.

Everything was flawlessly spotless for the international television audience tuning into President Obama and his Sate of the Union Address. The American people have been holding these things for so long, they had better be able to produce them without a hitch.

What wasn’t so flawless was the message underlying all the spit and shine on the surface. That message was one of commonality, sameness, blandness, and perhaps worse of all, lacking on any real ways to make things right.

President Obama talked about increasing confidence in government, claiming there is a serious lack of common sense in the way things are run.

Well done, fist identify a big stinky issue, such as the public’s continued loss of faith in their governmental leaders, and then admit that common sense just doesn’t exist in government. Why don’t you just toss your hands in the air exclaiming “I give up?”

That’s what it sounds like the President was doing – because he certainly didn’t mention any realistically achievable solutions to bringing common sense, order, and other respectable work practices to his publicly failing administration.

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Just Another Day in the Sandbox for Canada’s Parliament

Managing a country isn’t easy, which is why we hope those we elect into our governments are more than capable of doing the job.

Though if you’ve been watching Canada’s federal government the past few years, you might be shaking your head in disgust.

For the past few years, federal politicians in Canada have tried to resolve their differences by shutting down Parliament and calling snap elections. When elections weren’t called, the threats of them were held over our heads, as one political party claimed they just couldn’t work with the other.

The latest childish-acting out by Canada’s ruling party hasn’t forced an election, but might as well have, because it has a similar effect.

Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper’s Conservative Party has prorogued Parliament. This is what usually happens after an election, essentially wiping clean all un-passed bills or motions, allowing the politicians to start with a clean slate. Any bills or motions which weren’t voted on prior to the proroguing must be re-presented and voted on.

As proroguing usually happens after an election, we think nothing of it, because it allows the newly elected or re-elected government a chance to start the business of governing.

But when it is called in the middle of a government’s rule, there is reason to be concerned.

In this case, Prime Minister Harper’s government called the prorogue of Parliament because an economic statement they made alienated the opposition.
So, rather than trying to explain themselves, their actions and taking the enormous responsibility of governing seriously, they threw their hands up in the air, and decided to erase their controversial economic statement, so that they could start from scratch.

Just when you think the federal Canadian government has done the most childish thing unbecoming a group of professional politicians, there they go doing something completely different, but even more childish than before.

Makes you wonder just how far will these adults go, in their childish ways?

Far worse than embarrassing Canada on the world stage – which has already happened as we have seen by the reaction of many world leaders to Prime Minister Harper’s lateness for a photo opportunity during the last meeting of the G-20 – the other world leaders just laughed it off, in a “oh that’s just the bumbling Prime Minister Harper for you,” way – far worse than that, the business of governing constantly falls by the wayside. Things just don’t get done, because our federal politicians are too wrapped-up in their own childish antics, constantly trying to one-up the other, rather than doing the right thing.

And the right thing for any politician, municipal, provincial, state or federal, is to ensure the business of the government gets done.

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