fone a peeinees eee

- >> out, without anyone -won-. “|

cof. da’s. important. trade: figures’

: his lead.

“Wherever + practical, our future reports and
articles will stick with the measurements we
think most people prefer: feet, miles, acres,
pounds and gallons. |

We also. think it’s the least we can ‘do for
our non-metric neighbors to the south who
buy 76% of all our exports and are vital to
our tourist trade. Let's hear what YOU think.

sunday

news

north’shore
news

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1139 Lonsdale Ave.,
«-- North Vancouver, B.C.
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na Champion Barbara Keon

North Shore News, founded in 1969 as an independent communi-
y new epaper an d qualified under Schedule itl, Part ill, Paragrapt fil of

Excised Tax Act, is published each Wednesday and Sunday, by
North Shore Free Presa Lid. and distributed to every door on the
Narth Shore. Second Clase Mall Registration Number 3885.
Subscriptions $20 per year, Entire contenta © 1979 North Shore
Free Press Lid. Ai righta reserved,

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a aan Ea SN (GH)

THIS PAPER IS REGYCLABLE

dering - whether they make “3 ;

any common Senses

*Recently, _Statscan

had beed missing from Cana-

the species still around); you’ (ans goin

a lot of unpaid community. work: again: next year *
— a total, in fact, of 137 days. It- will ‘be May 17,
1980,. before you're able to earn”a.cent for.
“yourself, your mate and those little pattering feet.

That's the thought-
provoking news just brought
to us by the Fraser Institute
of Vancouver, a_ highly
respected independent
research body whose life's

~ work is to watch what the tax

collector is doing to us. Its

latest dismal findings are

contained in a new booklet
called Tax Facts.

The booklet shows that
the three levels of govern-
ment under which we suffer
are winning the race for our
hard-earned - dollars at. an

alarming speed.

“$n 1978 the average family
income was $20,000, out of
which federal, provincial
and municipal tax collectors
grabbed $7,486 — or 37.4%.
Seventeen years earlier, in
1961, the average family
income ws $5,500 and the
total tax bill $1,863.

TAX INDEX

The Fraser Institute
measures this increase as a
“consumer tax index”
which works out, from 196)

——

through 1978, at 302%.
During the same period the
official consumer price

index rose by only 134%.
Put another way, the percen-
tage cost
increased by much more
than double the rise in the
cost of living.

And oddly cnough, in-
come tax was not the main
culprit. Taxes other than
income tax accounted for
nearly 60% of the average
1978 family's tax burden of
$7,486, which broke down as
follows:

Income tax, $3,134; sales
taxes, $1,107; taxes for
social security, pension,
medical and hospital ser-

of government ~

vices, $1,195; © liquor,
tobacco, entertainment and
other - excise taxes, $384;
auto, fuel and vehicle
licence taxes, $371; profits
tax, $312; property tax,
$304; natural resources
taxes, $204; import duties,
$268; other miscellaneous
taxes, $207.

All this, of course, is
hardly surprising when you
consider the personal impact
of the millions and billions
all three levels of govern-
ment merrily spend week by
week and month by month in
the taxpayer's name.

For .example, every 41
billion spent by Ottawa (they
currently spend over $50
billion a year) costs every
man, woman, child and baby
in Canada an average of $40.
If you reckon an “average
family” as consisting today
of two parents and two
children, that’s $160 per
family per federal billion.

FOOD AND
SHELTER

At the provincial level,
every $100 million spent by
the B.C. government takes
$172 from that same family's
pocketbook. And on the
North Shore every $1 million

splurged by your local
council or school board
relieves the North Van

District family of $68; the
West Van family of $104;
and, the North Van City
family of $124.

These hard facts and

figures may not make you:

very happy. But at least they
may help you read yester-
day's federal budget — and
the provincial and municipal
budgets coming your way
next year — with a keener,
more critical eye,

. As the authors of the
Fraser Institute’s booklet
note’ “The consumer tax
index has risen more sharply
over the period (1961-78) ..,
than any of the other
economic burdens that the
family faces,

account for a more signifi-
cant chunk of the = con-
sumer’s budget than shelter
and food combined — a

complete reversal from
1961.”
Shelter and food—“are

essential to life itself, Put
very bluntly, therefore, we
have now, it seems, reached
the almost incredible stage

where we are compelled to |

give our elected representa-
tives more to squander from
one election to the next than

we spend on our own basic |

survival. In the case of the
federal government over the
past decade “squander” ‘is
the only appropriate word.

OUT OF THE GLUE

During the Trudeau years
Ottawa not only spent every
cent it extracted from us,
After cight deficit budgets
out of 10 it also landed us in
hock to the tune of over $11

current level of taxes. _

We. ‘may spare. a teary i
passing, for Prime Minister
Clark and his. colleagues,
struggling to find. some way
of getting Canada out of the,
glue they've inherited from
their predecessors. But in
the end it’s up to us —- and
we have only two basic

. choices.

One is to carry on as at
present, grumbling futilely,
in which case the taxman
will undoubtedly dig his

‘ hand ever deeper into our

pockets.

The other --— regardless of
any threatened cuts in so-
called “services” — is to let
all governments know, loud
and clear, that we're no
longer prepared to work for
them five months a year.
Especially when it means

giving themt more money
“Total outlays on: taxes -

than we spend on feeding
ourselves and keeping a roof
over our heads.

Our American cousins
made such a choice 206
years ago this month in the
harbor at Boston. Maybe it's’
time to consider a Tea Party.
of our own,

1979
International Year
of the Chile