The Rural Voice, 1981-10, Page 33KEITH ROULSTON
How about taxes on food?
Food has always been one of those
mercifully few items governments in
Canada have neglected to tax but after
looking at the recent energy pricing
agreement perhaps farmers should wish
the government would tax food.
Farmers who have long felt they were
sacrificed at the altar of urban consumer
votes must have been a little bewildered
looking at the smiling faces of leaders of
three Canadian governments telling us
this was the best thing that could happen
to Canada all the while they were telling
Canadian consumers they were going to
pay three times as much for gas and
heating oil in the years ahead. But Prime
Minister Trudeau, Alberta's Peter Loug-
heed and Ontario's Bill Davis managed to
divert their thoughts from the hardships of
the consumer because they were already
counting the petrodollars flooding into
their treasuries.
The feds managed to get a bigger share
of the income pie than ever before while
Alberta got a bigger pie so it s smaller
share was still bigger. Bill Davis. well he
just taxed the whole darned pie so that no
matter how big it got, his share just kept
getting bigger. When it came right down
to it, the consumer could go to hell in a
used oil barrel for all the politicians cared
as long as there were more tax dollars
coming in.
Silent beneficiaries of the whole scheme
were the already rich oil companies who
just broke the record profits they had
made the year before with last year's
revenues.
And so farmers should perhaps be
arguing for taxes on food so they too can
gain. If, for instance, Ontario's seven per
cent sales tax were applied to food stuffs,
then Bill Davis' government would be all
in favour of higher food prices because if
eggs went from a dollar to two dollars a
dozen the government would take in twice
as much.
Best let the feds in there too somewhere
so they'll be making bucks and wanting
the farmers to get more money as well.
During the Alberta oil production cut-
backs the government had a tax on
Canadian gas and oil so that it could afford
to pay more for the imported stuff.
Perhaps we could have a tax on Canadian
produced food so we could afford to give
away surplus production to third world
countries. The farmer could gain plenty
that way by having both high prices and no
limits on production. The Prime Minister
could gain a lot of points with Third World
countries with such a giant free food
basket under his arm. Under such a
scheme even the Canadian Consumer
Association and the Globe and Mail
should be happy since farmers could get
rid of those dastardly marketing boards
and thus save the country from such
vaguely socialistic organizations.
Can't you just see the smiles all around
when the politicians call a news confer-
ence in Ottawa, toast each other with
champagne and announce that beef will
now cost S3 a pound at the farm gate and
milke $2.50 a quart with the farmers
getting twice the price of today and the
feds picking up a third of the new prices
while Bill Davis smiles contentedly
because he'll be picking up 21 cents a
pound on beef, 18 cents on milk?
Doesn't it warm your heart?
-.41"
7%■•
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P.O. Box 190, Exeter, Ontario NOM 1SO (519) 235-1530
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THE RURAL VOICE/OC) ')BER 1981 PG. 31