Wow, Canada’s governments sure know how to make a birthday a happy one.
By your birthday, you have to fork out about $75 to get your sticker renewed for your car.
On Canada’s birthday, July 1, the Ontario government stuck us with the Harmonized Sales Tax (HST), which makes the tax on a number of things 13 per cent, and a second tax, the Eco Tax, was slipped in quietly as well.
According to a Toronto Star report, Amanda Harper Sevonty, a spokesperson for Stewardship Ontario, the agency that is overseeing this lovely new tax, said the organization would rather spend the money dedicated to telling people about another tax grab on education rather than warning people it was coming prior to July 1.
“Our message to consumers isn’t about the eco fees. Our message to consumers is about here are the materials and what to do with them,” she told The Toronto Star.
And that makes so much sense.
Unfortunately, I only heard about the eco tax on a headline news station. The articles in Toronto’s dailies don’t have much information either, particularly in the why department.
And sadly I can’t get on either the Stewardship Ontario website nor the makethedrop.ca website, which is where you can get a full list of taxed products.
I read one story the eco fees are being passed along to the consumer from the manufacturer who is being charged to dispose of these products.
Pardon?
Why is the government allowing manufacturers to get their money back from the consumer when I am sure the same companies are already increasing the price of their product to make up for the shortfall?
I am trying to be eco-friendly. I am trying to green my life, eat sustainably, buy locally and combine trips to use my car less.
I am doing this for the environment as well as to save what little money I have.
How am I supposed to stay a float when my income is staying the same and everything else is going up? How are people supposed to manage?
I appreciate I live in a country that offers ‘free’ health care and education, and I realize these things actually do come with a cost and we do have to pay for them, which I am happy to do, but adding more taxes to people already struggling doesn’t seem right.
I don’t know what the solution is, but sneaking in a second tax on top of the HST may have just broken the proverbial camel’s back.
5 comments:
Aren't governments wonderful. I heard yesterday that the government here imposed a $1 per gallon fee on gas. So if I buy 1 gallon of gas and it costs me $8.17 it really should be costing me $7.18. That really adds up.
Cheers :-)
- Rainforest Mommy
Yipes, I wouldn't be happy with that second tax either.
I'd offer you a place here in America, but we are getting screwed too. And they probably won't let you in - yet anyone from the south just walks in to open arms.
*sigh*
I didn't know about the eco tax until yesterday (10th). Bought some batteries at Canadian Tire. The batteries cost $5.29. $1.80 appeared under it on the screen when the clerk rang me in. "What's THAT?" I asked, and said boy, "the HST is HUGE!" I presumed. No, that's the eco tax and you get taxed on THAT she said! Sure enough, the bill was now $7.09 and the HST was .92 cents. Now my $5.29 cost me $8.01. SHOCKING! Car batteries are going to cost a fortune now, for instance. Where do they get off TAXING THE TAX???!!! The $1 extra for gas is awful, didn't know about that either.
Yes, the eco-tax is insane.
In Europe, many residents are charged, at the register, a fee to dispose of items, such as TVs, that fee is sometimes more than $40.
Eco-waste is a massive problem. I'd had to be the people in some African nation, sadly, that's where the eco-waste goes, who have to deal with our waste.
Technology and advancement in society is great, however, it comes at a great cost.
There's no solution here. But an eco-tax? Isn't this anti-tree hugger?
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