Right in the centre - File your taxes and watch them be wasted

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Published on Friday, May 3, 2024

By Ken Waddell

Neepawa Banner & Press

Just about everybody has filed their tax returns by now and people should be disappointed. Whether your income tax bill was a few hundred, a few thousand or many thousands of dollars, you have good reason to be disappointed. The federal government is wasting tax dollars, yours and mine.

When they decided they needed to have a computer based app to track Canadian citizens coming home, they wasted millions on a computer program that did little more than the old fashioned passports did. Hundreds of millions of dollars were wasted on scurrying around and worrying about bogus isolation plans that seemed silly and proved to be silly.

The federal government is spending upwards of $50billion on EV car battery plants. It’s insane, as EV cars will become more popular likely, but why would we subsidize them. Currently EV cars are useless for rural Canada travel. There’s more promise for hybrid cars perhaps but the distances required for rural travel makes EVs, at best impractical and, at worst, dangerous.

Ever wonder why the car makers and the government downplay the life expectancy of an EV battery and the cost of replacement. It’s because if you knew, you would be really annoyed.

Why is the federal government subsidizing the CBC to the tune of $1.4billion per year? It’s insane. Why is the federal government subsidizing newspapers, including this one? Why doesn’t the government buy ads in Canadian newspapers instead? They buy ads on social media and that money leaves Canada the moment they press the send key. If they spent that money in Canadian newspapers it would make more sense.

The federal government wastes millions of dollars on overseas trips and “climate” conferences. Enough said. The Governor-General, regardless of who it is, spends a lot of money on foreign trips. Why?

Have you ever asked yourself why the feds spend so much in First Nations communities and rarely on the programs and projects that the FN people want?

That has been going on since 1867 and you have to wonder why the FN people are still among the poorest of the poor, the most underserved and the most distressed in our country. It’s because the department is misguided and very poorly run. It seems they spend more money on conferences and changing the department’s name than they do actual work.

From 50 plus years of working in government and observing government, I can assure you that, yes, there is waste in government and lots of it.

If you want more information on places the government shouldn’t be spending your money, go to the websites for the Canadian Taxpayers Association and the National Citizens Coalition. Their research is very good but, heads up, it could cause indigestion.

The next federal election can’t come soon enough. Maybe, just maybe the Conservative Party of Canada can do better.

Disclaimer: The views expressed in thiscolumn are the writer’s personal views andare not to be taken as being the view of the Banner & Press staff.