GST stupidity and arrogance: a continuing saga Otto Jelinek, MP Minister of National Revenue Dear Mr. Jelinek WHEN I wrote you in June about the arrogance and laziness of your Goods and Services Tax Department, | specifically stated I didn’t have the time or the patience to read letters from your office about us living in the best of all possible worlds. lam satisfied that somebody, either you or my MP Bob Wen- man, lit a fire under those people. * They have admitted that they harassed me for a bill that did not - exist, and they have at last paid the money they owed me, plus overdue interest. No apology, of course, but _ what can you expect? At least it was better than collecting from a deadbeat —- your cheque didn’t bounce. Why couldn’t the people who write letters for you have let well enough alone? They couldn't. They just had to use up my time and patience ‘vith a Jetter covering ass, It turns out the GST people work ceaselessly for my benefit and spend lunch times and holi- days saying their rosaries. Well, well. Mr. Jelinek, you should have 44 I challenge you to try to get _ your local GST fax number. You wont. The numbers are secret. 99 read my letter instead of having somebody tell you about it. You should have read your rep- ly and thrown it away. Your — writer has placed you in the posi- tion of defending GST’s refusal to _ engage in ordinary business cor- respondence by saying it preserves the ecology. .“In keeping with the current trend of fiscal restraint and ecological conservation ... Reve- nue Canada Excise GST does not automatically issue written ac- knowledgerment...’" Two things are bad about your . bureaucrats’ attempt to cover ass. ’ One is falsity. Revenue Canada does issue receipts for quarterly payments of income tax. One arrived the same day as your pitiful letter. I enclose & copy. The other thing wrong with - your letter is misdirection, that _old bureaucratic trick. The pretence is that I was ina snit about not getting receipts. The truth is that l mentioned that in passing; my central con- cern was that GST never issued a notice stating they were rejecting one of my quarterly returns, and thereafter they ignored every re- * guest for information. Often the income tax depart- ment changes my tax return, sometimes to my cost and some- times to my credit. Invariably, they notify me of the change and give their reasons. Also it was always clear that | can challenge their decision. The GST, in its pursuit of ecological purity, does not even Paul St. Pierre | PAULITICS & PERSPECTIVES deign to answer double —registered letters of inquiry. 1 said before, I say again, if in- come tax can issue statements and answer letters, so can the much smaller GST department. Your letter suggests I telephone GST. If you had been allowed to read my letter you would know that L tried that, more than once, and was always promised infor- mation that never arrived. If GST wanted the peasantry to have access to them, they would provide us with their fax numbers. Since the government mail system went sour, most of us now rely on fax. I challenge you to try, asa private citizen, to get your local GST fax number. You won't. The numbers are secret. Bureaucrats use fax only to talk to one another. “*One of the main goals of my department is to provide effective and efficient service and we strive to achieve this at all times.’’ Oh, you poor man, the things that are said over your name! Let’s be plain. The GST has a large contempt for the public, and they haven’t a much higher regard for you. Given the pervasive paranoia of Ottawa, you may see me as an - enemy. | am not. I bear you no ill will, Mr. Jelinek. I sympathize with you. The prime minister, not you, selects your deputy minister and that deputy’s first loyalty (after himself) is to the prime minister, not to you. Beneath him are other man- darins whom you discipline at your peril. I can imagine new much you would prefer to write to me “I have told the bastards to shape up or ship out.”’ I know that you cannot do that. If you exercised the discipline normal in private business they would watch you and wait and at a critical moment, betray you to your enemies. You are, to a very large extent, their capiive. But at least, dear hostage, don’t let them write letters for your Signature that are misleading, ob- tuse and of dubious veracity. . If you are depending on people like these to supply you reliable information for use in the next election, ! think it might be best that you go back to the farm be- fore Dad changes his will. ‘MERIT British physicist discusses new work Saturday & VENTURER AM/FM RADIO/CASSETTE RECORDER Model 9638. Auto reverse, high speed dubbing, built-in equalizer. FOAM BATH CONDITIONER 1.5 litre MULTI VITAMINS & MINERALS Bonus Pack #125 tablets _ Schue FREE 632 mL. Limit 2 CASHMERE BATHROOM TISSUE 8 roll VICKS, NYQUIL COLD MEDICINE Liquid VALVOLINE Limit 5 per customer. Friday, Septernber HAILED AS the new Buckminster Fuller, Peter Russell, physicist and author of The Global Brain, will discuss and sign his new book, The White Hole In Time: Our Future Evolution and the Meaning of Now, tonight at 8 p.m. on Vancouver’s Granville Island. The event is being hosted by North Vancouver’s Treasa O'Driscoll and the Celtic Cen- OO. Sunday KOHO 25, 1992 ~ North Shore News - 9 tre of Creative Change. A Cambridge scholar and one-time student of Stephen Hawking, he has argued that humans will be required to change dramatically as a species to achieve the next stage of evolution. Tickets are $12 and $15 and are available at Banyen Books. For information, phone 737- 8858. 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