The Rural Voice, 1993-05, Page 34Farmers,
politics
and taxes
The Grey -Bruce
Tax Force makes
sure Fair Tax
Commission hears
the farmers' side
of the story
By Cathy Laird
Someone once said, "There are
two certainties in life — death and
taxes." The Ontario Fair Tax
Commission is giving individuals a
chance to say something about taxes.
The Fair Tax Commission (FTC)
was set up by the Provincial Office of
the Treasurer in March 1991 to
"Provide the government of Ontario
with advice on how to design and
implement a fair tax system." The
Commission has been conducting a
broad review of the fairness of taxes
in Ontario, and seeks input from a
wide sector of taxpayers by holding
general public meetings and making
all the reports, position papers and
research studies of the FTC available
to the general public.
There are three levels to the
hierarchy of the FTC — the
Commission, the working groups,
and the community consultation
program. On the Commission itself,
there arc 10 members, one third being
"tax technocrats", one third being
academics, and the final third being
from a "social focus" group —
educators, civil servants, business
people.
The chairperson of the FTC is
Monica Townson, an independent
30 THE RURAL VOICE
economic consultant in Toronto, who
is a financial journalist. Ms.
Townson was a consultant to the
United Nations Economic Committee
for Europe.
The Fair Tax Commission was set
up in the spring of 1991 and launched
in the fall of the same year. An FTC
Conference was held in the spring of
1992, with ongoing research leading
to the development of the FTC
Discussion Paper, published in March
1993.
The FTC established eight
"Working Groups" to deal
individually with eight specific
issues: corporate minimum tax, real
estate gains tax, integration of the
Ontario sales tax and the GST, the
environment and taxation, women
and tax, low income tax relief,
propeny tax, and wealth tax.
The eight Working Groups
brought together more than 200
people such as business executives,
trade union representatives, farmers,
educators, municipal officials,
members of social action groups, tax
professionals, environmentalists, and
other members of the public. One
main goal of the FTC is to bring in
participation by individuals and/or
groups from areas that previously
have had little or no input in forming
tax policies (for example, the farming
community).
There are areas of concern to
agriculture in all of the eight working
group issues, but there are two issues
that pertain to farming specifically:
property tax and environment and
taxation.
The Property Tax Working Group
was asked two questions: (1) Is the
current property tax system capable
of meeting the revenue requirements
associated with local governments'
and school boards' program delivery
responsibilities? (2) If not, what
changes should be made to the
property tax system and/or other
funding sources for local
governments and/or school boards to
improve fairness in their revenue
raising requirements?
There are 49 members of the
Property Tax Working Group, with
one third representing the education
sector, one third representing the
municipal sector, and the other third
representing various private interest
sectors. In addition to each Working
Group there is a Community
Consultation Program that has set up