The new Provincial Sales Tax is a reflection of a regressive and racist mentality |
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Nipawin - April 2, 2000 - By:Mario deSantis | |
regressive |
This morning, as I was reading the budget address(1), I came across two of Eric Cline's passages |
and I began to laugh thinking about the regressive and racist mentality at the core of Cline's Big | |
Brain. These two passages refer to our provincial sales tax, that is the broadening of its base to | |
include many more items, and its extension to off-reserve purchases by First Nations people. | |
Timothy Shire has just published the excellent article "Education and Health Tax: Wider Based | |
and Breaks the Treaties(2)" and I became overcome by emotion when I realized that my today's | |
thoughts overlapped with his. However, my perception on the provincial sales tax has a kind of | |
humorous slant which blends very well with the serious writing of Shire's article. | |
under-utilization of our sales tax |
Cline introduces the changes to our provincial sales tax by stating "Our provincial sales tax is |
currently levied at the lowest rate in Canada and on the narrowest consumer base. This | |
under-utilization of our sales tax is a primary cause for high personal income tax rates. | |
Therefore, the sales tax rate will remain at six per cent, and the sales tax base will be | |
broadened to include items taxed elsewhere." Now refer to the word under-utilization, and | |
you reader tell me if this Big Brain of Eric Cline doesn't belong to our Mausoleum(3) being | |
built in Saskatoon. | |
low income people in Saskatchewan |
Since when is a tax, which is a levy or a burden to people ever under-utilized? It really takes |
the reductionist and legal eloquence of Eric Cline to highlight the regressive mentality of this | |
government. Let us go on with the next passage "The introduction of a sales tax rebate to all | |
low income people in Saskatchewan also makes it appropriate to examine past practices... | |
Therefore, effective midnight tonight, the provincial sales tax will be extended to off-reserve | |
purchases by First Nations people." This passage reflects the racist mentality of Honourable | |
Eric Cline. | |
provocative |
Instead to be proud of our cultural diversities, Cline labels our natives as a bunch of low income |
people who can now pay the provincial sales tax since there is now a sales tax rebate for low | |
income people. This is an absurdity, a provocative and offensive language reflecting the racist | |
mentality of this government. Rightly so, the Federation of Saskatchewan Indians has filed | |
papers in court to challenge the government's extension of the sales tax to natives, and | |
Timothy Shire has called this legal challenge "The Indian War of 2000." | |
While Eric Cline has presented the Saskatchewan's first Budget of the 21st century, Timothy | |
Shire has stated that the provincial sales tax "could very well take us back to 1885." | |
---------------Endnotes: | |
Quote by Donella Meadows "challenging a paradigm is not a part-time job. It is not sufficient to make your point once and then blame the world for not getting it. The world has a vested interest in, a commitment to, not getting it. The point has to be made patiently and repeatedly, day after day after day" ftp://sysdyn.mit.edu/ftp/sdep/Roadmaps/RM1/D-4143-1.pdf http://iisd1.iisd.ca/pcdf/meadows/default.htm | |
Budget Address: A Plan for Growth and Opportunity, Honourable Eric Cline, Minister of Finance, Government of Saskatchewan, March, 2000 http://www.gov.sk.ca/finance/budget/budget00/2000papers.htm | |
Education and Health Tax: Wider Based and Breaks the Treaties, by Timothy W. Shire, April 1, 2000 | |
The U of S Synchrotron: A Mausoleum for a Museum Mentality, by Mario deSantis, November 16, 1999 |
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