Ask the Hammer

Reading an article on Toronto’s possible tolling of the Don Valley Parkway and the Gardner Expressway got me to thinking, didn’t the users of those 2 main arteries already pay for the pleasure of driving on them (if you have ever been there pleasure isn’t the adjective I’d use).

Imagine if that thinking travelled to Montreal making the Metropolitan, the 2 & 20, (whenever the construction actually ends) or the Decarie “Expressway” (oxymoron) toll roads.

Don’t those already high City, Provincial and Federal taxes we pay and a portion of our vehicle registrations go in part to pay for the servicing of the roads we drive on?  Of course we all know that any portion we did pay for in the last 30 years never made it to road repair! Wouldn’t we already have enough money in our coffers to cover what I consider the essential services of getting from point A to point B if our politicians stopped wasting, and in some cases allowing others to steal, our tax dollars?

Aren’t our beloved elected officials supposed to encourage local businesses by providing easily accessible routes to businesses which pay even more taxes (business on top of personal) for the privilege of selling their goods and services to us who also pay taxes on those goods and services?

Double and sometimes triple taxing is increasing all the time

I am beginning to believe that there must be a covert political group, hidden from us all, whose only task is to come up with creative and ingenious ways to divert our attention from the fact that we keep being charged more and more not only for less and less, but for services we have already paid for.

This list of double and sometimes triple taxing is staggeringly increasing all the time.

Let’s delve a little farther into this myriad tax upon tax system creation by looking more closely, and by comparison, at tolls such as those Toronto is proposing by asking what could be next:

  •  Landowners already pay water tax. How about adding a tax on actual drinking fountains, such as those in malls, airports, and in stores?  Put in your $0.25 and get a sip. More if you are really thirsty or want to top up your water bottle. I’m sure an app could be created like the one for parking meters.
  • Car licenses and registration. There are already charges inside those costs. Look at your forms.
  •  Shopping (plus grocery and box stores). Besides the tax on the items purchased, pay a toll to enter stores, be it in person or online. Pay for parking spaces at malls; sure it was free before, but it’s a privilege not a right, so the boroughs and the Province could throw in a requirement to pay for this “privilege” too. Imagine the revenues they could rake in, not to mention revitalize Montreal’s downtown core since many currently stay away due to the cost of parking there.
  • Fines – the creation of some being simply tax grabbing inventions. The pay to play mentality foisted upon us at every turn seems to be an easy fix by Government levels to offset their blatant dilapidation of our tax dollars instead of reining in the ridiculous expenses they vote and foist upon us; granite stumps, bridge lightening, gazebo repairs, re-excavating streets after paving them, increasing vs. decreasing already large bureaucracies, adding more and more inspectors to check up on us, and one of my favs, the OQLF!  Talk about wasting money and now, Canine Inspectors. Soon there will be Inspectors to inspect Inspectors!

When will it ever stop? Well that is up to all of you come election time.

Me. Hammerschmid has practiced Family Law since 1982; Senior Partner at Hammerschmid & Associates; founding & current member of Family Law Association of Quebec (past Secretary for 28 years). Inquiries treated confidentially: 514-846-1013 or [email protected] © 2017 Linda Hammerschmid 

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