Separation Party of Alberta -To ensure the future of Alberta for Albertans by becoming an independent nation separate from Canada.

Archived HOT STUFF September 2005

A Taxing Situation! by the Web Editor

None of these existed 100 years ago. How many do you pay?

Accounts Receivable Tax

Building Permit Tax

Capital Gains Tax

Cat License Fee

Cigarette Tax

Corporate Income Tax

Dog License Fee

Federal Income Tax

Fishing License (indirect tax)

Food License Tax

Fuel permit Tax

Gasoline Tax - Federal and Provincial and GST

Goods and Services Tax (GST)

Hunting License (indirect tax)

Inheritance (Estate) Tax

Income Tax Penalties (tax on top of tax)

Liquor Tax

Local Income Tax

Luxury Taxes

Marriage License Tax

Property Tax

Real Estate Tax

Septic Permit Tax

Sales Taxes

Recreational Vehicle Tax

Road Toll Booth Taxes

School Tax

Smoking Fines (indirect taxation)

Telephone service fee tax

Toll Bridge Taxes

Traffic Fines (indirect taxation)

Trailer Registration Tax

Utility Taxes

Vehicle License Registration Tax

Vehicle Sales Tax

Watercraft Registration Tax

Well Permit Tax

Workers Compensation Tax

Times have changed since 1905. Taxing has sped up since 1905.

Why the West should separate by Klaus Rohrich, Thursday, September 1, 2005

The recent musings by Ontario Premier Dalton McGuinty about how Alberta's oil money might come in handy in solving some of his fiscal problems is yet another prime indicator that it's time for Canada to divide itself into its natural constituencies. From the Manitoba border east, Canada is an aggregation of entities with mutual dependencies whose philosophical viewpoints are centered on the glorification of victimhood and the proposition that government is the panacea for all of society's ills.

From that border westward the overall philosophy is centered around self-reliance and small government. These are the two solitudes that really comprise Canadian society, not those of the two official languages.

While Quebec has for a long time now made noises about leaving Canada, it is my belief that this posture is akin to a dog chasing a car. What would the poor dog do once he caught the car? Quebec's threat to separate, including the referendum that was "narrowly" defeated is nothing more than a negotiating strategy cleverly contrived by Quebec politicians to get the rest of Canada to accede to its demands.

If this isn't so, why is it that the majority of Canada's Prime Ministers over the last 50 years have all been Quebecers and have coincidentally been mostly Liberals? And why is that Quebec, with a total population of over 7.5 million and a vibrant economy to boot consistently receives substantially more money from Ottawa than it sends there in the form of taxes?

Alberta, on the other hand, with its resource-based economy and total population that at 3.2 million is less than half of Quebec's consistently sends more money to Ottawa than it receives in terms of federal government services. In the 30 years between 1961 and 1992, Alberta alone paid Ottawa $139 billion more than it received in government services in return. During the same time period Quebec received from Ottawa $168 billion more than it paid in taxes.

But that's just the tip of a very nasty iceberg. Quebec and Ontario have a combined population base that is close to 2/3 of the entire Canadian population and as such dictate the political agenda of this country with no regard for what the smaller provinces want. Ontario is in effect playing the whore to Quebec's pimp, as together they are destroying the traditional institutions for which thousands of Canadians fought and died over the past two hundred years. This country's Western provinces have a legitimate beef with the East in that the decisions made by the Ontario/Quebec axis of iniquity on their behalf are not in keeping with those provinces' social norms and standards. And there isn't thing one that the West can do about it, as the Liberal governments that have predominated over the last fifty years do not need the West's votes to stay in power.

Part of the Liberal strategy for the retention of control over Canada is to marginalize Westerners as cowboys, hayseeds, hicks, bigots and rednecks. This song plays very well east of Kenora, but it is pandering of the worst sort in an effort to appeal to Ontario and Quebec's effete sense of intellectual self-importance. The Liberals have done this so well and for so long that people in eastern Canada actually believe that it is un-Canadian to believe in democracy, family, fiscal prudence, self reliance and yes, God. As such the concerns expressed by the West receive no play in the vaunted halls of power back East.

Economically, the West is currently well positioned due to Alberta's oil wealth. However, the government of Canada doesn't seem to understand that oil is a finite resource that once used up, will not be replaceable. Ontario and to a large part Quebec is a manufacturing-based economy that may ebb and flow with the cost and availability of oil, but if truth be told, that type of economy will survive indefinitely due to its diversity. While on the subject of resource-based economies and manufacturing-based economies, why is it that Ottawa excluded Ontario's auto manufacturing sector from its ill-conceived Kyoto wealth redistribution scheme and not Alberta's oil fields? Would it make more sense to do the obverse, since oil is limited and finite? The answer, of course lies in the fact that the Liberal Party of Canada relies on Ontario as its power base and wouldn't dare do anything that would make Ontario's economy slow down. Alberta on the other hand doesn't have the political clout, so Ottawa can do anything it wants, up to and including the rape of that province's wealth.

Currently there is a strong sentiment in the West to get out from under Eastern Canada's thumb. A poll conducted by The Western Standard has found that over 1/3 of all Westerners are open to the idea of separating from Canada, while close to 50% of Albertans are in favor. All it will take is a few more outrages on the part of the buffoons running this country to take this sentiment beyond 50%. Unlike Quebec, the West has nothing to lose by separating and plenty to gain.

Ontario and Quebec could find themselves alone within confederation along with the Maritime Provinces, who with a combined population of less than 2 million carry very little weight when it comes to defining the Canadian agenda.

When we examine all the actions imposed by the Liberal government in Ottawa, one doesn't need a Ouija Board to determine where we are heading. Programs such as the National Gun Registry and the phobia against privately provided healthcare play only to the Liberals' power base in Ontario.

Ideas such as the "multicultural mosaic" are largely eastern creations cleverly designed to garner Toronto's ethnic votes for the Liberals. The concept that our strength lies in our diversity is politically correct hogwash that will prove disastrous for this country.

Strength comes through the unification of a common purpose that is supported by the majority of a nation's people. Clearly, this does not define Canada today under its current configuration. As such, the West would be perfectly justified in saying "sayonara".

Klaus Rohrich is a columnist with Canada Free Press

Duceppe wants rebates, and leave natural resources alone

Bloc Quebecois Leader Gilles Duceppe wants Ottawa to "do more to regulate skyrocketing oil prices. Ottawa should reconvene the Standing Committee on Industry as early as this week in order to devise a plan to deal with high oil prices, Duceppe said Saturday." Duceppe "rejected the idea of nationalizing Canada's oil industry, saying it would be too costly and would infringe on provincial jurisdiction. 'National resources belong to the provinces, and to (nationalize oil) you would have to go over Alberta's head and if we go over Alberta's head it opens the door to bypassing Quebec on hydroelectricity, which as clean energy is an energy of the future,' Duceppe said." Read the news article here and here.

Analysis

As stated at the end of the above news item, NDP Leader Jack Layton described the oil industry as a very small number of very large companies that are setting the prices. This is his justification for calling on the federal government to implement what amounts to a new NEP. He did not include the hydroelectric industry in his comments.
Bloc Quebecois Leader Gilles Duceppe understands that, in a level playing field, Quebec's hydroelectric industry would be subject to similar controls as what Layton proposed for the oil industry. Duceppe correctly points out that natural resources belong to the provinces.
The Leader of the Bloc Quebecois understands provincial rights. The Prime Minister of Canada does not. What do you believe about provincial rights? What do you see in Alberta's future?

Klein Quotes SPA Leader's Concerns, But Doesn't Have The Guts To Fix The Problems

Premier Ralph Klein's article in the September 2, 2005, National Post, "Alberta is carrying its weight":

"Much has been said recently in the national press about Alberta's current windfall revenues due to high world oil and gas prices and exactly what should be done with these revenues; specifically, whether they should be "shared" with the rest of Canada.

It's a discussion worth having. But for the discussion to have value, it needs to be based on the facts, not on perceptions that Alberta is permanently awash in more money than it knows what to do with.

There's no denying that energy revenues in Alberta are high this year, much higher than anticipated. The province is now forecasting a budgetary surplus of at least $2.8-billion for the year, and it's likely that the surplus will end up being higher than that.

Keep in mind, though, that surpluses are the exact opposite of predictable annual revenues. They're unpredictable, and they're sporadic. In that regard, they're just like energy prices.

As people in Alberta know all too well, in the world of energy prices, what goes up must come down. And it usually comes down as suddenly and as unexpectedly as it went up. That happened in a big way back in the late 1980s, when oil prices plummeted virtually overnight. And it's happened often since then. Albertans have learned the hard way not to make long-term grandiose plans based on the fickleness of world energy prices. I recommend that the pundits across Canada take that lesson to heart as well."

Much talk, and where is the action, Premier Klein? Read more here.

Analysis

Consider again these questions, posed in previous Hot Topics:

Albertans rely on the whims of Ottawa politicians to give back money that could otherwise be spent here, in Alberta, to improve business opportunities, health care, education, and other basic needs. We have ample proof that the money we send to Ottawa does not return to help Albertans. Why send the money at all? Ottawa imposed this on us and calls it our "duty." We are so bound to duty that we continue to fund a highly suspect system that controls Canada's confederation. By providing funding, we tell Ottawa and the world that we agree with the actions taken by Ottawa. It is time to take our duty seriously, by preparing for our collective future.

Alberta's future is in your hands - will you let Ottawa take it away, or will you stand up for your rights and support the Separation Party of Alberta in the fight for everyone's future?

New Energy Program - previously known as the National Energy Program - ask an Albertan who lived through it.

You may be comfortable today. Will your children have a comfortable retirement as Albertans within Canada?

Albertans, how is this province going to retain and regain control of this financial capacity? Do you trust the federal government to maintain or reduce current taxation and transfer payment arrangements? Has the federal government given you sufficient reason to trust that there will not be more intrusions into the financial health of this province? How confident are you that our non-renewable resources will remain in demand and available as a major source of wealth?

Albertans are intelligent and well-informed. We have seen the level of interest and care Ottawa extends to us. We have seen the level of interest and care Ottawa puts into monitoring finances, even after repeated warnings from the Auditor General. We know we can be the best society in North America. We do not know that Ottawa will allow this to happen.

As mentioned earlier, separation from Canada is not all about the money. This site hosts a counter that displays an estimate on the dollars going from Alberta to Ottawa, dollars that do not return to Alberta. Why do we host this counter? Isn't this a focus on money?

The money is important. A country cannot operate well or for long without sufficient funding. That's the point. Ottawa receives this money and, even before AdScam, Ottawa was not clear on what happened to this money. Since news of AdScam broke (after the Jane Stewart/HRDC fiasco, the Firearms registry fiasco, and a number of other financial disasters at the federal level), the question of where the money goes is even more relevant. Does it make sense to close your eyes and throw money to the east, hoping for a return on your "investment", or opening your eyes to make an informed decision about where to invest your money?

How many generations of Albertans are Albertans willing to sacrifice? Only you can answer that question.

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