The tyranny of the GST:
laziness, arrogance Pt. 2 |

A MONTH ago this colurnn contained details of laziness
and confusion in the Goeds and Services Tax department.
I had paid, on time, all amounts I owed at every quarter
since the tax was introduced. The GST department had
never paid me when it was in my debt.

On Dec. 31, 1991, when the
department had ignored every let-
ter and failed to acknowledge
receipt of every return, I wrote in-
forming them that I would give
them another half year to end the
disarray in their accounting
system.

They did nothing, until late spr-
ing, when they began dunning me
for an imaginary debt.

So on June 2, 1992, I wrote
Minister of National Revenue Ot-
to Jelinek asking him to require
the department to find my lost
files and behave in a businesslike
way.

I doubt that Mr. Jelinek ever
saw that letter, any more than he
is likely to ever see this, but his
flunkies did, and now, after a
year of trying to get a response
from the department, a letter has
finally arrived. Other people who
suffer the tyranny of the GST
might be interested.

The department makes no ex-
planation for losing my files. It
offers no explanation for refusing
to answer letters.

However, the file has been
found, and it turns out that I do
not owe the GST $1,281.32. It
turns out I never did owe them
one red cent.

At present, they calculate they
owe me $89.12. They were
$1,370.44 out in their figuring.
What a pity. Way it goes, isn’t it?

On one point, | admit that i
was wrong.

I had stated that any investiga-
tion of this matter by the depart-
ment would prove that nobody
was to blame.

1 was only half right. True, no-
body in the department was to
blame. But somebody was. Me.
Last summer I entered my tax
credit claim on the wrong line.

Because I wrote $1,281.32 on
the wrong line, I was harassed by
mail and by telephone for moths.

When I wrote to them, as I did,
they never answered the letters or
acknowledged receiving them.

It was up to me to discover that
I had entered my tax credit clair
on the wrong line.

Because I wrote on 107 instead
of 106 ] was awakened by morn-
ing and summoned from my din-
ner table at evening by men who
suggested I had better come down

Clam chowder
teams square
off on Sunday

THE EIGHTH annual
Great Clam Chowder Con-
test will be held Sunday,
July 19, at Waterfront Park
in North Vancouver City.

_ An estimated 30 teams will
square off for prizes and trophies
for the ‘‘overall best creamy clam
chowder’? and the ‘‘coolest
costumes.”’

There will be three team
categories: open, 911 and profes-
sional. First, second and third
place prizes will be awarded in
each division.

Entertainment this year includes
performances by Freddie Fud-
pucker’s Marching Band and the
Group of Seven Artists.

There will also be refreshments
and children's events plus four
classic car displays.

The event is sponsored by
North Vancouver City. For more
information call 987-PLAY.

Paul
St. Pierre

PAULITICS & PERSPECTIVES

to the GST office and talk things
over because otherwise I might be
in court.

Because | had entered my tax
credit claim on the wrong line,
they felt justified in ignoring me
when I told them that I would not
discuss such matters on a tele-
phone on which I had no re-
cording device and that they must
write me a letter or fax me.

On June 18, I sent one more
double registered letter, which
began ‘‘Apparently you are stiil
resisting placing a record of your
derelictions on paper. Again, to-
day, you telephoned me.”’

So at last, with GST a year and
a half old, L. Martin, district col-
lections manager in Burnaby, has
written to say that they owe me
and that I never did owe them.

Nowhere in his letter is there
the slightest hint of an apology
for making threatening phone
calls at all hours of the day and
evening.

Nowhere is there any explana-
tion of why, when a claim is re-
jected, the citizen is not told of it,
as he is by the Income Tax
department should there be some

discrepancy in @ return to that
department.

Nevvhere is there any explana-
tion of the failure to answer let-
ters.

Nowhere is there any effort to
grapple with the fact that when I
telephoned GST, I was told that I
had no files.

It just says it was all my fault.
(‘Input tax credits must be
entered on line 106 ... you entered
the input tax credit adjustments
on line 107 ...’")

I doubt that Mr. Jelinek ever
saw my letter. If he did and asks
about it some day, he may be told
that I was at fault but have never
been forgiven.

With the honorable exception of
Mr. Wenman, none of the other
MPs associated with the House of
Commons Finance Committee
even acknowledged letters from
me, so they are equally unlikely to
learn the truth.

Those Finance Committee MPs,
the Ottawa mandarins involved
and Mr. Jelinek are all making a
dangerous mistake in letting GST
arrogance run. There is a white
hot anger out here among
Canada's churls. It may break in-

to open flame some day.

§
\yLGW6ut 3

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Friday, July 17, 1992 - North Shore News - @

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