Log in & Sign up
Most Commented
Saturday, January 30, 2010
Put your hands in the air and give us your money
posted by Rick Blue at 22h25
The biggest tax grab of the century
Welcome to the new era, West Islanders, when you will be expected to pay more and more for the privilege of living adjacent to the once-great metropolis of Montreal.
You will be pleased to know that the delusion of grandeur, the Montreal tradition so epitomized by Jean Drapeau, goes on. But in an all new way. Instead of inspiring enormous and expensive civic projects that will bleed taxpayers for decades, it has become a huge sink hole of entitlements that will bleed taxpayers for decades.
For your inconvenience, we have devised a large unwieldy bureaucracy called The Agglomeration Council for your mayors to attend and vote against any of the tax increases arbitrarily imposed on you by the city. But their votes will not mean much. We have made sure that we wield all the power.
Mayor Bourque suggested One Island – One City and you rejected it.
Mayor Tremblay campaigned against it to get your votes and as soon as he was elected he turned around and helped the PQ force you to merge with the city against your will.
Jean Charest campaigned against that to get your votes and as soon as he was elected he helped his Liberals devised a devious way of pretending to allow you to de-merge while stacking the deck. It was fiendishly clever: a faux referendum in which dead people still on the rolls counted as a pro merger vote.
“The Night of the Long Knives” had nothing on this. It was “The Night of the Voting Dead.”
So we made it look like you voted for this unfair situation when you didn’t and now we make it look like you have fair representation when you don’t. This slight of hand theft of your rights should be studied by authoritarian governments for centuries to come.
So what is the lesson here? It is that you cannot escape your fate.
We can take more of your money and give you less service. That is our new motto. And what we don’t take from you in taxes we will get in parking tickets and fees.
We know you all need cars to get around. After all, you have no métro, only a rickety old train that only operates at rush hours.
The fact that all these policies deter you from coming downtown will be studiously ignored. We will maintain the fiction that you should pay for this city because you use it.
We know you shop at Fairview and not on Ste. Catherine St. You get your bagels on Sources and not on St. Viateur, and your smoked meat at Pete’s and not on The Main. And you go for your walks in the Arboretum and not on the mountain.
Probably because of those two words that we cannot stand – free parking.
But we need your money to support our generous pensions and sick leave, all those entitlements that most of you lack. We voted it in for ourselves. And the only way we can fund these entitlements is by forcibly taking the wealth from the ones who create it – you. So even now, during one of the greatest recessions of our lifetime, when most of you are having difficulty keeping your heads above water, we feel no shame in increasing your taxes by a whopping 12 per cent.
The only way you could possibly stand up to us is by creating your own city. A city of the West Island. Like they have in Laval and Longueuil. But you won’t, will you?
We depend upon your inaction. Thank you.
Montreal's abuse of the ConGlom
Rick Blue is quite correct that the latest theft by Mayor Tremblay through the detestable Agglomeration is revolting. He also correctly identifies the every party and political leader responsible for this latest assault on West Islanders.
Problem is, Mr. Blue contributed to the election of Jean Charest and his Liberals during the last election. After spending many columns berating West Island voters for being easily intimidated by the Liberal candidates' constant use of the word "referendum", he supported the Liberal candidate in his riding (Geoff Kelley). Ignoring the ADQ, Mr. Blue argued that there was no other choice but voting Liberal. For good measure, Blue sprinkled the word "referendum" all over his column to get his point across: avoid a referendum and save the country (sadly, some people are actually stupid enough to believe this).
So yes, the 12% tax increase by Montreal at our expense is disgusting but so is the hypocrisy of people like Rick Blue who say one thing and do another.
André Bordeleau
City of Montreal
I agree totally with your comments regarding M. Tremblay and the City of Montreal regarding recent property tax increases in their budget. All levels of government are chock full of self serving individuals who serve their own purposes in regards to pensions, perks, sick days, deals with buddies and business, etc., at the expense of the taxpayer. The politics between Quebec City and Montreal are another factor altogether. The scary part is this cancer continues to grow unchecked at all levels of government. The private sector shows no growth in employment and the government sector continues to grow unchecked regardless of economic reality. The City of Montreal will slowly rot and die as the city council squeezes money at every opportunity. people will just stay away. I live in Beaconsfield and I have noticed a significant increase in police activity in regards to ticketing, epsecially at the end of each month. Check Creswell at St. Charles as the last few days of the month are very busy to ensure their ticketing quotas are met. Big Brother is not only watching he is getting bigger and bigger. The traffice cameras are an example of this. Oh and to top everything off, M. Tremblay has assured us there will more tax increases on the way. He has talked about a municipal tax as well aa many other creative ideas. My wife and I have decided we will be moving to Ontario sometime this year as we will take advantage of the strong real estate market and the opportunity to put an extra 15% of our provincial tax we pay after you go over $60,000 in earnings in our pocket instead of theirs. I am really concerned that governments and people in general have no idea what will happen if interest rates moved up only a couple of percentage points from the artificially low rates that we currently have. The truth is that in Canada, unless you are very wealthy, it is becoming to expensive to own much of anything. The carrying costs regarding taxes are just becoming to high when you add on the consumption taxes, our ridiculously hidh personal tax rates, and all the other hidden taxes that we endure. I have decided I am going to quit the private sector and get a government job, cozy up to M. Tremblay, get 30 sick days a year that I can accumulate over time, get an indexed pension, full health coverage, job security even if I don't produce anything of value, and make sure that the taxpayer are always aware of the great services government provides for the huge amount of money they pay to have those services
Taxes
Rick
You have the extraordinary ability to "tell it like it is". Our West Island MNAs should reply to us and explain the unfair and dishonest way we we have been faced with for years. I really would like to hear how they feel and what they are going to do about it.
Surely it's time to say "We are fed up with this treatment and we aren't going to take it anymore"
Ian Murray Beaconsfield
Tax increases in the West Island
Residents of the West Island are paying the price for exercising their right to self determination. The Quebec and Municipal government of Montreal are now demonstrating their displeasure with citizens who dared to oppose the forced mergers. The mismanagement of Montreal City Hall and its various departments are now going to be paid for by citizens of the West Island and other boughs. We have little say in how Montreal spends our tax dollars and to add insult to injury we will never be seen or have representatives that are considered as equals. This amounts to taxation without representation.
The services that Montreal provides to various communities is minimal. Our public transportation is spotty at the best of times and is getting worse. After 7 o'clock trying to get back to the West Island can prove to be a lengthly endeavor. Policing is far and few in between. In Beaconsfield we share the fire department with other West Island communities. I wonder what would happen if two or more fires broke out at the same time? Would we have to wait for reinforcements from Montreal? It is time the Mayors and citizens of the West island stand up and be counted, we must make it clear as day to the Agglomeration committee that we will no longer give them a blank cheque! Montreal must curb it's spending habits and re-evaluate it's priorities. Every day we hear of grandiose mega projects that simply put, we can not afford. The two super hospitals alone will bankrupt the city yet they continue to waste money studying a dead horse. Montreal has more councilors than most major cities in Canada and in the Untied States. It has become unmanageable. This situation has to be exposed and rectified to provide a more fair and equitable to all parties.