? . page 6, May 3, 1978 - North Shore News - . The forthcoming federal election: -- | cost the taxpayers about $53 million -- will be the most expensive in our history according to the man who should know, Canada’s chief-electoral officer: representatives in Parliament will still come dirt . cheap by comparison with the cost of the faceless bureaucrats who actually run our lives. | Divide 282 into $53 million and we come up with a figure . Of $187,943 as the price-tag for electing each individual MP to the House of Commons -- roughly 67 per were elected for $29.8 ‘million, or $112,879 per MP. - Appreciably less than half _ the increase, incidentally, is’ due to inflation. The new election expenses law, through which the treasury will pick up a large chunk of the campaign expenses of | candidates and’ parties, is scheduled to add an extra. _ $13 million or so to the final. bill, =§. _ An around the. clock slip 7 forming operation’ on the Pioneer grain elevator con-. struction project was reluc- tantly approved by. North Ven City council Monday > night. Admitting defeat on the. long simmering elevator issue, Alderman Gordon Cross stated ‘‘the decision - was not made here and at _ some time we have to accept the fact that the best we can do.is reduce the incovenience for the citizens. We've lost...”” | The permission for the 24 hour operation did not go uncontested. In fact, Alder- men Frank Marcino and Gary Payne put forward a motion denying . permission to Pioneer but this was defeated. - year. . - expected to _Oncé our MP has been chosen, he‘or.she also has to — be kept for up to four years -- at a salary of $26,900 pre year plus a tax-free allow- per ance of $12,000. So we can cent higher than at the 1974 chalk uy So ‘we ‘can election, when 264 members| chalk up approximately $11 million a year as the actual — payroll for the 282 ‘voices of | the people in Ottawa. _ DROPINTHE OCEAN» If we then ‘‘amortize’’ the .. $53 million election tab over a four-year period, at an annual $13.5 million,..the .. total cost: of getting our people to Parliament Hill and Maintaining. them. there works out at $24-25 million a project regardless. An amendment putting responsibility on the con- tractor to remove or lessen any source of unacceptable noise on ‘site based on the accoustical engineer exper- ience was added. _ Alderman Marcino didn’t appear to believe this would. accomplish the problem. He > said the use of the acoustical . engineer was like ‘‘putting the wolf in charge of the sheep pen.”’ a The 24 hour slip forming will extend from May 8 to 26 and from June 12 to 23. BEST PAT IS ON A NICE DAY You CAN PARK OUTSI - revenues have --.To* most. of .us ordinary | mortals: $25 million @ year “aay sound like quite a tidy ‘sum to spend on our chosen’ ‘rulers, ‘considering — the . ‘results. they’ve brought us ut nee pen ean ee Over the past decade. But it’s Jean-Marc. Hamel. Even..so, our.’ 282. elected - less'than a'drop in the ocean vi ‘compared to what we spend. -on the rulers we don’t choose. ~~ | refer, of course, to the ever-growing federal civil ‘service -- no longer under the effective control of Parlia-. ment --. which. has now become the true government of Canada. . ‘The figures that follow are on the modest side, because they. all refer to the 1975 tax year, sifice when both the civil service and federal tax increased appreciably. But. even the 1975 story is devastating ‘enough. | $4.1 BILLION For that year official Revenue Canada Taxation Statistics showed a total of - 316,195 federal government employées (not including the armed forces) earning an . _ average individual salary of $12,968. Your heart works harder The total federal civil service payroll, -therefore: $4.1 billion. In the same year the federal government’s total revenue .from_ all forms of taxation amounted to $22.65 ‘billion. This figure covered — not only income tax but also ‘estate taxes, customsimport - duties, sales taxes and excise _ duties and taxes. _- Income tax (personal, cor- porate and non-resident) accounted for $15.3 billion of the overall $22.65 billicn. If_you and your pocket calculator are still with me, this, in brief, is what the - numbers mean: @ Three years ago the salary and wages bill alone for federal civil servants took over 18 per cent. of all the taxes Ottaw collected. e The salaries of MP’s plus the year’s proportion of 1974 election costs took a minute — .082 of one per cent of all the taxes collected. 27% OF INCOME TAX Apply the same formula to 1975"income taxes alone and when you’re not in the game. ~~ Get fit—and turn the clock back. =e .-35 « payroll and election costs come in at. .12 of one: ‘per | cent. So just let’s suppose you — paid $3,000 income tax in — 1975.. Around $809 of that went solely for federal civil. service salaries and wages." And this, mark you, still did. not include government con- tributions {o the bureaucrats’ . _ fully indexed . pensions; nor. their shining, smartly fur-. nished new highrises; nor the thousands of tons of. paper (printed in two lan- which form their ©2 : staple diet. Only $3.60 of your:income. ‘tax went to elect and pay our _— MP’s. ae RUNNING AMOK | Obviously, any modern industrialized state needs considerably more civil. ser- the results are “even. more. _thought-provoking. ' |... bureaucrat payroll. works.out: at almost 27 per cent of: all income tax revenue; the MP. - _ cost: Wh -Canda’ abou running. “it's figures of this kind that explain’ why. Parliament is, . for the time being, no longer able: to control the bureau- -cracy which is supposed to serve it and us, It’s figures of this kind. that go a long way: towards. explaining S. .explair why Canada today is $11.5 billion x : By comparison, the cost of our elected representatives is a steal -- if only they can get their hands ‘on the financial _.. veins - .again.... Ask -your ‘Dargain-price’ __-_ candidate where he. or. she’ stands on the matter. we tn 2S pete PAB bee ad alance, pay interest on your minimum monthly balance and it's credited semi-annually. 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