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2 comment(s)

You can pray or buy a plane!

To The Editor:

I have just returned from Moncton on Highway No. 11, or at least what is left of it.

I now know why our premier has purchased his own airplane. At least now he'll now be able to get home.

As for the rest of us who don't have $4.5 million? All we can do is pray!

Elizabeth

Vickers-Drennan,

Bouctouche

(Via e-mail)

Comparisons were odious

To The Editor:

The phrase "Comparisons are odious" (meaning they stink), is attributed to John Lydgate in the year 1440, but it is just as meaningful today, particularly when applied to the article in the March 17 Times & Transcript from our Finance Minister Victor Boudreau, "New Brunswick's tax system is competitive."

Mr. Boudreau lists 10 "facts," as he calls them, and proceeds to tell us how that particular tax item is no worse than many of the other provinces he lists. But he fails to understand that we in New Brunswick don't want to be any worse than our colleagues in other parts of Canada. We want to be better!

Fact number one states that a family earning $40,000 pays less income tax here than a similar family in Newfoundland, Nova Scotia and P.E.I., but those three provinces plus ours total only about 15 per cent of Canada's population. Put another way, we are worse off than the remaining 85 per cent of Canadians as far as personal income tax is concerned.

Thanks a bunch Victor!

Fact six concerns New Brunswick's gasoline tax and, as correctly pointed out in the editorial in that same issue of the Times & Transcript, Mr. Boudreau conveniently ignores the fact that we have to pay 13 per cent HST on top of the total gasoline, diesel or home heating oil price (and electricity), which most other provinces that do not use the HST system do not.

The minister also tries to hide behind double talk when he states in fact number seven that in regard to property taxes, "Any property taxes on owner-occupied residential property in municipalities are municipal taxes, not provincial taxes." That may be true, but the provincial government has the power to curtail the spiralling property taxes by ordering a cap or some other such measure. As the editorial states "Renters actually pay double tax via their rents. And while municipalities take residential taxes, it is the province conducting the assessments and refusing to cap them at levels that are reasonable."

Some of the other more odious examples of over-taxation in New Brunswick are noticeable by their absence from the finance minister's article.

But coming back to the subject of the many "comparisons" that Mr. Boudreau likes to make between New Brunswick and other provinces in Canada, he conveniently ignores many salient points. For instance when comparing us to Newfoundland and Labrador and Nova Scotia, he ignores the fact that both of these provinces earn huge amounts of money from their off-shore drilling fields, something we in New Brunswick wish we had, but we don't!

Victor Boudreau also conveniently ignores the fact that our province has (I believe) the highest percentage of seniors in all of Canada, and this puts an enormous strain on things such as our health-care system as well as other social services. We are told that up to 25 per cent of hospital beds in New Brunswick are occupied by seniors who should be in some sort of nursing home or advanced care facility, but because these facilities are either over-crowded or non-existent, the hospitals continue to care for these people, which contributes to the long waiting lists for some hospital procedures.

Finance Minister Boudreau, your "comparisons are odious" and do nothing to convince me that the New Brunswick Liberal government is working towards the betterment of all New Brunswick's citizens.

To put it bluntly: what have you done for me lately?

Recently, when I filed my annual tax return, I noticed that for the first time ever, my provincial taxes were higher than my federal taxes, and for that I should be grateful?

I think not!

Keith J. Tindale,

Shediac

(Via e-mail)

N.B. taxes are not competitive

To The Editor:

I take exception to the statement by New Brunswick Minister of Finance Victor Boudreau March 17 that "New Brunswick's tax system is competitive."

Fact: I paid $176 more New Brunswick Income Tax for year 2007 than I did for year 2006.

Fact: I paid $248 less federal tax for year 2007 than for year 2006.

Fact: Using my income, New Brunswick came in with the ninth highest income tax in the country. Only four other provinces and territories have a higher rate.

Fact: New Brunswick taxpayers in the income tax bracket of $40,000, as mentioned by Mr. Boudreau, pay more income tax, not less, than residents of P.E.I. in that same bracket.

Question: What do you think is wrong with this picture Mr. Boudreau?

Burton Fearon,

Bass River

Time to freeze power rates

To The Editor:

We all acknowledge everything, including power, costs more. But it is excessive when NB Power tries to make various cases for various rate increases and yet makes $85 million in profit.

That is outrageous and I challenge Premier Shawn Graham to freeze all power rate increases for two years. Surely the excess profit will tide the company over that long.

I'd even be half happy if Premier Graham would speak publicly on the matter. He's kind of quiet, isn't he?

Joe Woodford,

Moncton

(Via e-mail)