By Doug Draper
When it comes to getting rid of another unpopular tax Ontario’s Liberal government is trying to impose on consumers, it helps to have one of the country’s major retailers on your side.
Canadian Tire's opposition helps kill eco-tax on Ontario consumers.
It was only a day before the province’s environment minister, John Gerretsen, was forced this July 20 to pull the plug on the government’s controversial “eco fee” on potentially hazardous toxic products, that Canadian Tire – one of the largest retailers of cleaners and other products that fall under that category – declared that it would no longer participating in collecting the fee from its customers.
All of that just 20 days after Premier Dalton McGuinty and his government used Canada Day (this July 1) to slip in this fee on top of the infamous Harmonized Sales Tax (HST), another regressive tax it imposed on consumers across Ontario on the same day.
The so-called eco fee which is, in fact another layer of sales tax, was hatched by the government in co-operation with an industry-led organization, called Stewardship Ontario, for the purpose of supposedly using the money collected to pay for the proper treatment and disposal of cleaners, paints in aerosol cans and other products that could be hazardous to the environment and all forms of life on this planet. But it was never clear how accountable industry would be for ensuring this money would be used to properly handle the toxic remains of these products.
So here is where a few questions come in from this columnist, who spent a full half of his 31 years as a journalist, covering environmental issues fulltime.
Whatever happened to the pollutes-pay principle? In other words, why aren’t the producers and emitters of toxic substances being taxed rather than hitting the average consumers in the pocket book?
If those directly responsible for the production of toxic products had to pay an extra tax, or at least have their corporate taxes and subsidies reduced or eliminated, they might, as some defenders of the eco fee, pass those costs on to consumers. But it may be just as likely that they find ways to reduce the content of hazardous materials in their products and possibly come up with alternatives – cleaners that use vinegar or backing soda as active agents, for example – that are far less likely to do any long-term damage to life on this planet at all.
I continually fail to understand by politicians who are conservatives – and McGuinty and most of his group are conservatives – don’t believe enough in the free market system to let business people pay the true cost of doing business rather than
But the McGuinty government in Ontario seems to have established a record of not wanting to charge taxes or cut subsidies to corporations, or raise income taxes, which are far more fair than imposing another sales tax on people – many of whom are struggling to get by on lower incomes.
What remains of concern here is that the government is threatening to come back with an alternative to the eco fee in 90 days. Whatever it is, you can almost bet it won’t directly target polluters but will involve some other way of hitting the ordinary consumer in the pocketbook. For this government, nailing the ordinary citizen seems more attractive than, let’s say, going back to mandatory laws that get away from “voluntary compliance” and get back to charging and stiffly fining industries that despoil our environment.
(Click on Niagara At Large at www.niagaraatlarge.com for more news and commentary on matters of interest and concern to residents in our greater binational Niagara region.)
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It nickel and dimes lower income people who can’t afford hybrids, or ecostar appliances or live in ecosmart houses.
People complain about income tax yet they fail to realize that someone earning over $100,00 still has much more to spend than someone living on $20,000 to $30,000
Yes, corporations need to be targeted but so do people with high salaries, and ofcourse expensive expense accounts.
It ain’t fair.
And , imagine if all the people who maintain hygiene in public washrooms and hospitals went on strike for even just a few days.
Same for housekeepers in hotels.
We don’t even get a free bus pass.
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Consumers buy supposedly environmentally harmful products because those products work. It’s only right that the end user of those products pay for disposal. User pay, in other words.
IF equally effective yet environmentally safer products exist, and are marketed and distributed equally, then let consumers decide which products they prefer to use.
At that point, consumers can decide if the more effective product is worth paying a disposal tax for.
Okay — let’s correct a few errors that appeared above…
1. Punishing people for being productive is regressive.
Income, capital gains, death, and estate taxes punish people for producing, saving, and investing.
Consumption taxes are the only “fair” taxes. They hit all people equally.
Those with more money to spend – Myna please note — buy more things and therefore pay more tax.
Lotteries are a tax on the mathematically challenged, and those foolish enough to believe in something for nothing.
BTW I’ve yet to hear any good done with all that lottery money. There are no “Lottario swimming pools” or “6-49 libraries”. It’s as if it disappears.
2. Businesses DO NOT PAY TAXES. EVER.
Businesses pass on taxes to their customers.
Customers pay taxes. All of them.
3. Businesses exist to make a profit.
Contrary to modern North American belief and what our miserable excuse of an education system teaches, businesses do not exist to provide jobs.
If you tax them too much, businesses either close or move elsewhere. With a handful of exceptions like mines and huge tax-funded auto factories, government and union idiots can no longer hold businesses hostage. A business can transfer wealth with a few mouse clicks.
Have you any idea how many wealthy business owners are closing their businesses, cashing out, and moving their wealth out of reach of thieving politicians and bureaucrats?
How many incredibly smart business people are so fed up with ridiculous regulations and labor laws that they refuse to start or invest in new businesses – some of which would employ tens of thousands?
I do.
We’ve killed many golden geese with stupid laws. We’re killing more. And that’s one big reason so many of us are self- and under- and unemployed.
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Self-employed is it … and I don’t see any big tax cuts or corporate welfare coming my way … I predict that in less than five years we will be hearing about GM moving its operations to Mexico, despite their endless tax cuts and corporate handouts.
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Ok, so let’s see how we do this folks:
– Yes, we tax the evil Manufacturers, who currently get to avoid the costs of disposal of both their product AND its packaging….
Oops! How do we tax the Chinese who seem to make almost everything we buy?
– Hey, let’s tax the rich Retailers, who will obviously want to reduce theft-proof packaging, and will inspect all products to avoid toxic materials and construction … right? What you don’t think they’ll do anything? Hmmm.
– Guess that just leaves us Consumers, who are the Only people to ever pay … unless it’s those who live downwind or use the water where the garbage is jettisoned.
McGuinty makes such wonderful decisions, eh:
a. cancel the visible ecoFee Tax, which would require annual reports of how it gets spent,
b. replace it with an Invisible tax so that we suckers won’t even know we’re being taxed. (Isn’t that why we hate the GST – because we can SEE it? Have you ever seen an Invisible tax reduced?)
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Next to go should be the HST tax grab. Why do I get $300 when a married person gets $500? Single people get screwed again! After all, it’s my own money they’re giving generously back to me. I only wish I made the $80,000 limit that they seem to feel is the norm (in their out of touch, delusional thinking). I’m sure I’m not alone in thinking this. My bills are just as high as a married couple’s but I have half their income to pay them! In fact, most bills (insurance, health, etc.) are higher for singles for some unknown reason – and always have been. Seems like discrimination to me!
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