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HomeMy WebLinkAboutThe Citizen, 1997-03-05, Page 5Arthur Black Bear hunters aren’t all yahoos If you go down to the woods today You're in for a big surprise Lyric from Teddy Bear's Picnic Those lyrics would, I expect, have special significance for me. Especially if I was foolish enough to go down to the woods during bear season. For those who were fortunate enough to be in Florida or Hawaii and consequently missed the firestorm, let me explain. Some weeks ago I wrote in this space that in my considered opinion, anyone who 'went down to the woods' and hunted bear for sport was a...um...dork. I have since discovered that that was grossly oversimplified and unfair. Bear hunters are, more than anything else, highly sensitive. Especially about bear hunting. Now I know how Bonnie and Clyde felt International Scene A little hissing about those taxes Of all the statements about taxes, the one that tickles my fancy the most is that of Colbert, the finance minister of Louis XIV of France, who observed that taxation was the art of plucking the goose so that you get the largest number of feathers with the least amount of hissing. We can all vouch for the fact that a large amount of hissing goes on in Canada and it has not become any quieter during the past few years. Looking at tax rates in various countries is not the easiest thing to do since no nation seems to have a simple tax system. One of the best ways is to look at tax revenues as a percentage of the gross domestic product, or the sum total of all spending in an economy. In this respect, while the percentage has risen slightly in Canada over the past 10 years, we are still in about the middle of the pack. If you want to feel sorry for somebody, let your sorrow be directed at the Swedes: 10 years ago they were the hardest hit and a decade of paying taxes has not changed that position one iota. The country coughs up just slightly over 50 per cent of GDP in tax revenues. The ones to envy are the Americans; they pay the lowest rate of any major nation. Furthermore they can eam a higher income than we do before they start to pay any tax at all. We don't do too badly when it comes to the number of personal income tax rates; we are in fact one of the lowest. In this category it is the Spaniards and the Swiss who have the highest number of brackets. Just to show you that this can be slightly misleading, the Swedes have only one bracket but, based on what I have told you above, this bracket is a whopping 56 per cent. You don't start paying ■ \ during their final moments. Scant seconds after those words were published, the incoming fire commenced. I was blitzed! Hammered! Thumped! I haven't received that much mail since I wrote a column suggesting that Brian Mulroney might be human. I was called ignorant, uninformed, bigoted. Some mouth breather in Sault Ste Marie called me a child molester. Another reader suggested I should be investigated by the Mounties. Still another opined that he could tell from my writing that I was a card- carrying member of Bear Watch. (I'm not, by the way - but the writer made Bear Watch sound like a terrorist cell of the Trotskyist underground.) What I was, was wrong. I suggested in that column that bear baiting (the practice of leaving rotting food or dead carcasses out to attract bears) was a strategy employed by bear hunters. In fact, bear-baiting is illegal in most of Canada. As many letters pointed out, 'real bear hunters' don't use bait. They ipay use camouflage, subterfuge, telescopic sights and high-velocity, gut­ exploding, flesh-shredding bullets, but they certainly would never consider stooping to By Raymond Canon that until you reach about the $30,000 level in income but, once you do, watch out! Two other countries which do not fare very well in the tax business are Belgium and Holland. Both of them are not far behind Sweden when it comes to a percentage of GDP paid in tax. The Dutch have to start paying tax at a lower level of income than any other country, while their average income tax rates at every level of income are just about the same as the Swedes. In one category, the Belgians are even higher. I don't think that does much to make the Swedes any happier. One interesting category is the percentage of total tax revenues which comes from personal income tax. In this respect the Swiss are the hardest hit; just about 65 per cent of their total tax comes from this source. We do rather well here; only Britain and Australia have a lower rate than we do. The Swiss, on the other hand, do not pay nearly as high a percentage through the goods and service taxes (frequently called VAT tax) as we do, nor for that matter do the Americans. Europeans, in general, tend to be hit pretty hard in this category, as anybody who has travelled over there can testify. If I remember correctly, the VAT tax in Sweden was and still is 25 per cent (there's that country again!). The tax waters get decidedly muddy when it comes to looking at what we get in services for what we pay in taxes. I may be drawn and quartered in some sectors for saying so, but Canada does not do too badly in this regard. We may complain a lot but so do other countries. When I was last in Germany, it was so bad that I expected at any moment to read that they had set up a Zentralnoergelstelle (that’s another of those long German words - this one means central complaint office). If the French don't have their version of one, they should have; they win hands down when it comes to griping. Because of this, politicians in all countries the use of bait. Many correspondents, after tearing a strip off my hide, went on to explain how the pastime of bear hunting is in reality the most humanitarian of pursuits. They spoke loftily of wildlife 'management' and the heavy responsibility they bore for 'harvesting' our natural resources. Nnnnaw ...Sorry, Charlie. You can 'manage' a comer convenience store. You can 'harvest' a field of wheat. Willfully blasting the guts out of a living creature calls for more active verbs. Believe it or not, I actually got some supportive mail. Not much, I'll admit, but some. A reader in Saskatchewan wrote and said kind things. As did a fellow in Elliot Lake, Ontario who said he hunts himself, but only for meat. And a response from a reader in Vernon says in part: "No doubt you will receive a lot of abuse from the yahoo hunting fraternity...keep up the good work!" Well, I don't think bear hunters are all yahoos, but I do know they've got feelings. And they rile easily. If I do decide to 'go down to the woods today', I'm wearing a flak jacket just in case. have to be very careful what they say about taxes; Jean Chretien's recent fiasco with his version of what was to be done with our GST is an object lesson being carefully studied all over. The French prime minister hides behind a pane of bulletproof glass these days every time he mentions the word to voters. Somehow I feel that good old Colbert would not be surprised to learn that the level of hissing has not dropped one iota over the past two centuries. Educator tells MPP concerns Continued from page 4 services are not an important factor in insuring a positive learning environment. As our representative in this government, we call on you to intensify your efforts and advocacy on behalf of Huron Public Education for education finance reform that must favour a low-spending, rural board like Huron. Per pupil spending and teacher compensation are well below provincial averages and are near the bottom in the province. We further implore you to be clear about our message to the minister. Cuts to education must stop. The crisis that the minister created is leading to chaos. Change, which is politically motivated, is hurting our students. A classroom can not stand on its own. We ask him to not lose sight of the most important "C" word in education... the CHILDREN in our classrooms. Paul Dyck President, OPSTF-Huron. A Final Thought Love of money is the root of half the evil in the world. Lack of money is the root of the other half. THE CITIZEN, WEDNESDAY, MARCH 5,1997 PAGE 5. The Short of it By Bonnie Gropp Performance value ... our public opinion welcomes and honours talent in every branch of achievement, not for any sectional reason, but on grounds of excellence alone. Thucydides Oh, that it were so. There is a scene in the movie Mr Holland's Opus that really bothered me. The story is about a musician, who grudgingly takes on a teaching position at a local high school. What is at first just a means to pay the bills, becomes a passion. He inspires the students, builds their confidence and teaches even the tone deaf to appreciate music. Yet, when budget slashing becomes necessary, the victim is the arts department, with the music program receiving the fatal cut. What troubled me was the reasoning that the only viable solution to funding problems was to slash the art programs. There was little value placed on its benefits and, it seems, a careless disregard for the impact the loss would have on certain students. While this symptom was more common in the past, there is yet today a tendency to consider the more creative subjects as expendable. Drama, music, and visual arts are, after all, entertainment. They are not the answer to world peace, nor will they discover the cure to cancer. But to those who have feelings to convey, who see images in music or more in an abstract than a splash of colour, the value can be as important. When I attended high school, there was no drama, no art. Those, like myself, who found only unconquerable challenge in math and science, who accepted history and geography as inevitable, could only hope for English and music to instill a passion in learning. When I consider what today's students are offered, I am happy for them. This past week I attended some performances at the Sears Drama Festival in Elmira, a competition held annually for secondary school students. A few days before this I argued with one rather curmudgeonly individual who referred to drama as a complete waste of time and to the festival as an excuse for partying. Believe me, he couldn't be more wrong. The program for the Festival slates, "At Sears we feel that participating is not just about pursuing a passion in theatre. Il's more. Much more. Il has to do with developing the skills and qualities necessary to become well-rounded individuals and productive citizens of society." While the young people certainly spent their time socializing, they also worked extremely hard. In addition to performing they attended classes, were responsible for the various aspects of putting together their productions and getting them onto the stage and off. Their efforts accorded them a wealth of experience in a variety of areas, from management skills and manual labour to the promotion of self-confidence, team playing and social skills. They supported each other and learned from each other. And took pleasure in their learning and their work, each and every exhausting minute. Performance arts are not just about creative expression and entertainment. Anyone who thinks they are, is obviously, and sadly, missing something vital in this world. We're not all going to be rocket scientists; but we all have something to offer.