Today, let's talk about adding up numbers at Minister Eric Cline's Finance Department, and pay attention to the recent eloquent statements made by spokesperson Roy Schneider. We must understand that our finance people are very smart; however, we must also know that being very smart and playing with numbers is not the same as working for the people.

I just wanted to provide this premise, so that, you reader can make up your own mind on the behaviour of our Finance people. As I was mentioning, these people are very smart, they fool you with an array of numbers coming out of their ears, so what is important in evaluating these people is to pay attention to the way they talk, and not to their abilities to fool you with numbers and to divert the subject matter. These people have the ability to talk for ever and saying nothing, and this is why they maintain a provincial accounting system which is not comprehensive, and this is why they shuffle money from one source of a crown corporation to another agency or to general revenues, and this is why they have discretional reserves or shock absorbers for diluting the money trail.

These people are very smart, the only problem with them is that they mix up so many numbers that they can't recognize anymore one number from another, which is which. And this is occurring in more than one governmental department. For example, when Minister of Health Pat Atkinson was asked what happened to the $51 million overrun for the closure of the Plains Health Centre, she had no more number to play with and she said "no one has run with the money(2)." Whenever there are no more numbers to play with, the "no one has run with the money" becomes the final answer of our millionaires in our government. And these governmental people don't need to play 'Millionaires', they just serve themselves.

In the last provincial budget, Honourable Eric Cline boasted tax reforms which will make Saskatchewan more competitive with Alberta. He stated that in a span of a year Sales Tax Reform will provide additional taxes in the amount of $142.7 million(3). However, in the three months beginning with April 1, 2000, the government collected an extra $46 million in taxes compared to the same period last year. By the end of the fiscal year, it is reasonable to expect that the total extra taxes would be in the amount of $184 million (46*4=184), that is they will be in excess of $41.3 million (184-142.7=41.3) of the governmental estimate.

Therefore, there is evidence that the Tax reforms are nothing else but an immediate tax grab for this government. But Finance spokesperson Roy Schneider is standing by the tax savings promise and said that he has departmental numbers which "were not included in the Spring budget because it would have made the document too long... It's in the background briefing papers. It isn't in the public document itself. We show the end result, we don't really show how we got there(4)." Mr. Roy Schneider is another governmental laugh, and I may mention something else as an additional evidence that this tax reform is another tax grab by this government: starting July 1, 2000, Sales Tax Reform will be expanded to include legal, accounting, architectural, consulting and engineering services; building services; advertising services; and Employment services.

Playing with tax numbers and wishful thinking is not working anymore Mr. Schneider, get real and stop being an inflated balloon, you may blow up out of your own puffing air.

References/endnotes

General reference: articles by Mario deSantis

1. - Honourable Janice MacKinnon and her rolling economy in Phonyland, by Mario deSantis, May 8, 2000

2. The closure of the Plains Health Centre: The $50 million overrun and the gimmick of saving money in health care, by Mario deSantis, December 19, 1999

3. A PLAN FOR GROWTH AND OPPORTUNITY: PERSONAL TAX REFORM IN SASKATCHEWAN, by Taxation and Intergovernmental Affairs Branch, Saskatchewan Department of Finance, section: "Saskatchewan's Tax Reform Will Be Affordable", page 18, March 29, 2000 http://www.gov.sk.ca/finance/budget/budget00/brochure.pdf

4. Tax numbers don't add up, CBC Saskatchewan, http://www.sask.cbc.ca Web Posted | Aug 30 2000 12:15 PM EDT