Two New Taxes On One Day – Happy Birthday, Canada

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.

Thursday Thoughts

Yugh traffic
Traffic has been crazy these last few weeks.

Around the time college and university students were saying farewell to another school year, traffic was fantastic – I barely touched the brake the whole way down the highway.

Then a few weeks ago, traffic became worse then it has been since my return to the daily commute. It stops and rarely picks up again.

The great news is there is only one month until the summer travel season.

Great weather
Southern Ontario weather has been fantastic recently – hot and sunny. I spoke to someone from Greenpeace in Vancouver, British Columbia, and she said the west coast city’s weather has been horrific – rain, rain and then rain again.

But rain, I suppose, is better than snow, which is what relatives in Calgary woke up to last week. Hee, hee.

Saving the world
I am feeling the need to do more for the world, which of course can only help us as individuals. I am in the process of doing interviews for a couple of stories, which I am really proud of.

I don’t often link my personal blog to my work site, but I do think I will make an exception for these two stories, which I hope offers people ways they can also help this world.

Homeless pets
I think I want to start volunteering with my son. I think we are going to play with the cats and walk the dogs at our local animal shelter.

SickKids Hospital
I also really want to do something for the Hospital for Sick Children. Longtime blog readers will know this downtown Toronto facility, which is world-renowned, literally saved my son’s life when he was one month old.

I read a lot of blogs written by Americans and it always breaks my heart, and makes me so thankful to be Canadian, to read about sick children and their families, who, instead of only having to be concerned about getting the best treatment for their loved ones, have to worry about raising money to pay for treatment.

Everyone at SickKids do so much, not only for Canadian children, but children around the world.

Ideas anyone?