By Robbie Manis, Special to The Suburban
Given Quebec’s reticence to continue supporting its population base via immigration, Mario Dumont came up with the novel idea of inviting some of the hundred of thousands of former Quebecers back to the fold after their sojourns in Toronto, New York, Vancouver, Los Angeles, Calgary and any other greener pasture which they have inhabited for the last bunch of years. While this is a noble gesture on the part of Mr. Dumont, I feel that it would only be fair to inform these emigrants of the relentless war that Quebec is presently waging on Quebecers. Specifically, Montrealers are the subject of a profound assault initiated by their trusty provincial and municipal governments. While the assault is neither physical nor militaristic, the carnage they seek to wreck on Montrealers’ finances and overall well-being is significant. Let me illustrate with the following examples.
Montreal was a vibrant and proud world class city in the 1960s. Thirty-plus years of manufactured political instability have caused irreparable damage to the city’s financial status and morale. With the endless pre-occupation with separation, we have succeeded in driving away anything that looks like a legitimate taxpayer, be it an individual or a corporation. We have created an environment where an out-flowing brain drain is nurtured and encouraged. We have banished entire industries such as banking and financial services as well as countless corporate head offices and international businesses. Montreal has become a niche player, subservient to the economic powerhouses of Toronto, Vancouver and Calgary. As a result, the remaining tax base has shrunk markedly to the point where the diminished population is subject to soul-destroying income taxes that lead the North American rankings by a wide margin. Of course, the problem then gets compounded. Having created a political environment that drives away corporate investment and the related employment, we then resort to massive doses of corporate welfare to entice the businesses to come back. Again, the beleaguered middle class taxpayer foots the bill for such largesse.
Montrealers like to mock the excessive cost of living in Toronto, Calgary and Vancouver. It makes us feel better about the salary discount that equivalent positions receive in Quebec. But the reality is that after tax, there are no real savings to living in Quebec. Let us consider a fictional Quebec couple where each earns $50,000 per year. This couple will pay $5,500 more in annual income tax than will a similar couple living in Ontario. That is a tidy $458 per month that never sees the light of day. And this figure probably understates the discrepancy since your Quebec tax return includes phantom income that is not considered income by the rest of the country. Moreover, deductions available to all other Canadians are often and rudely denied on the Quebec return. While I am at it, how annoying is it to double your work to prepare two income tax returns per person whereas every other province and territory manages to harmonize with Feds to simply require one return per person? Yet another part of the price of being distinct.
Not content to stuff its coffers with ungodly income taxes, Quebec and its cities with their bloated administration see fit to max out on property taxes that well outpace the national averages. By my estimate the Montreal agglomeration and related committees must employ up to 10 times the amount of administrators that similar cities in North America do. All of this costs money — yours and mine. Of course, the fact that we employ a unionized blue collar brotherhood that works at the pace of the flesh eating disease (an inch an hour) does not help to maximize the efficiency of this particular batch of tax dollars.
In addition to being shell-shocked by the aforementioned taxes, we also have the privilege of leading the league with the highest gas prices in North America. This is due to the imposition of special taxes added to the price of a litre of gas. While the poor middle class consumer is suffering from all-time high gas and heating oil prices, the government makes out like a bandit since higher core gas prices lead to higher taxes exigible payable thereon. As much as they lament the toll that high gas prices are having on the U.S. economy, the price that we pay per litre of gas in Montreal is more than 50 percent higher than the national average in the U.S. Not to mention 17 cents higher per litre than comparable prices in Toronto.
Not content to simply gouge us on the cost of gas, the municipal government also forces us to use more gas than is necessary. We hear often about carbon emissions and other posturing and pretense regarding concern for the environment. The city of Montreal even wants to impose an additional tax on anyone left idling their car for more than 12 seconds. Such is their concern for the ozone layer. But, of course, we know that their concern has nothing to do with planet Earth. If they cared at all, they would not mandate that we leave our cars idling unnecessarily when stopped at a red light when all we want to do is turn right. What is the cost of this waste of gas when multiplied by hundreds of thousands of cars per day on the island of Montreal? How about the cost to the environment? Does anyone care? Are Montrealers so significantly deficient in intellectual aptitude that while everyone else in North America can negotiate a right turn on a red light, we cannot? It seems strange but when I am outside the island of Montreal, I manage this complex maneuver just fine.
Our roads and infrastructure are an abomination. Ten minutes after Mayor Tremblay promised no property tax hikes in support of our decrepit roads, my property tax bill arrived with a very special road tax. While I now have the pleasure of donating additional dollars to the city, the roads appear to be worse than ever. Without even dragging up the tired stories of overpasses collapsing, driving around the city is like entering a slalom course. You can be driving on a deserted road with no car within 50 miles and yet your failure to stare at the pavement in front of you can cause you to write off the value of your car. The holes in the road are the size and depth of beach balls. How many Montrealers have paid the new tax known as pothole-induced-tire-destruction tax. Not to mention the whiplash that these craters can cause when you choose to mind the other cars instead of focusing on the landmines in front of you. Quite simply, not only are the roads in Quebec not paved with gold, they are not even paved.
Have you ever heard of tax being taxable? The concept obviously sounds absurd but it is a well embraced concept in Quebec. If you go to the pharmacy to buy $10 worth of medicine for your sick child, the five percent GST comes to 50 cents. The QST is calculated on not just the price of the medicine itself but also the GST you have generously donated to the Feds. Accordingly, the QST at its pretend rate of 7.5 percent actually amounts to 79 cents. While the Quebec government likes to advertise its tax rate as 7.5 percent, once you add on the lecherous portion that taxes the GST itself, the real QST rate is around eight percent. Just a little more deceptive fun with numbers that the Quebec government uses to amuse and abuse us.
All the above is just a sampling of the way we get systematically raped by our esteemed governments. This last point goes to the heart of the war on our sensibilities. I have lived in Montreal for 32 of my 40 years. (and if Quebec is so bad, why don't you get the hell out?) I was educated entirely in Montreal and had the privilege of growing up in the post-Bill 101 era. Accordingly, I speak French. I often work in French and I frequently socialize in French. I play hockey with a linguistically mixed group of guys. Sometimes we speak French and sometimes we speak English. Generally, the conversation defaults to the language in which the highest number of participants are proficient. But one thing is clear, nobody cares about the language issue.
In 32 years in the province I can think of one occasion of actually encountering linguistic bitterness. My conclusion is that the people do not care about this manufactured divide. It is only the politicians, so desperate to get their tired names in the newspapers that they try to divide and conquer the “two solitudes”. Quebecers, more than anyone else in North America, are uniquely positioned to reap the benefits of bilingualism. In a competitive world where unique skills differentiate us, it is reprehensible that the pompous politicos seek to promote linguistic divide instead of encouraging the expansion of linguistic capabilities. I do not think I have yet met a francophone whose sensibilities are genuinely offended by a bilingual street sign or commercial advertisement. Do we have to perpetuate this childish notion that makes us a laughingstock in North America forever? Is there no statute of limitations on foolishness?
So there you have it. I have tried to summarize all that these former Quebecers could expect to realize in the very unlikely scenario that they accept Mr. Dumont’s invitation. In reality, all I will have accomplished as a result of this essay is to increase the west-bound traffic on the 401.
2008-04-09 10:23:23
