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.
