Is there intelligent life on Mars? Saturn? At HRM city Hall?

First it was the Commonwealth Games, Despite almost daily news articles from Melbourne calling the games a 2nd rate circus, stories about the true costs in billions and stories about the total lack of the game's drawing power Mayor Peter Kelly and council followed the Pied Piper of the Metro Centre, Freddie Mc down the yellow brick road spending scarce tax dollars and calling it due diligence.

Our great sewer treatment plant that lasted only months and will now cost the homeowner money to fix (what insurance does not cover). Why don't we see heads roll over these screw-ups?

Now we have new street lights that have been blamed for accidents when to are covered with snow. Couldn't Mayor Kelly and council have learned this in advance? It wasn't a state secret. The reporter for the weekly found it easily enough. Will council have the backbone to admit that, once again they blew it and go back to the old lights or will we pay for crews to travel around sweeping them off or install electric heaters (that will cut down on power consumption)

Not all councillors can be called to task over this. With their attendance records one has to wonder if Councillor Stretch and Deputy Mayor Brad Johns even knew about the new lights.

It seems that city hall is a place to pick up your pay check and continue to do so no matter how poorly you preform, if you continually mess up costing the tax payers money or even if you don't bother showing up.

Bruce DeVenne

Police Chief Ebenezer Beazley and Mayor Jacob Kelly

The cash registers are ringing in a green Christmas it seems. At least in HRM's tax coffers if no where else thanks to the senseless annual (most years) winter parking ban. Mayor Kelly lead council and the Police Chief Beazley lead police department (seen at left not exactly as pictured) have teamed up to slam dunk tens of thousands of potential Christmas cheer dollars into the city's pocket. Councillor Sue Uteck is quoted as calling the ban “a tax grab on behalf of HRM,”, Next time Mayor Kelly asks if there is any new business in at council
can we expect to see Councillor Uteck stand and put forth a motion to do away with the ban? I doubt it! Get on the phone or your E Mail and tell Mayor Kelly enough is enough. The city will give you any number of reasons to keep the ban but the the truth is it's a very successful cash cow they get to milk annually.
Merry Christmas from the Halifax Gazette
Bruce DeVenne

The Zipper

Are you tired of passing a pot hole being repaired and seeing 10-15 people there? One working and the rest standing around? It doesn't have to be that way. Why don't Mayor Kelly and Council order a machine called the Zipper, it speeds up road work, cuts down on cost and does an efficient finished job in a cost efficient way. Seems these aspects of spending our tax dollars seldom, if ever, enter Council's collective minds. On the site below there are a number of taped testimonials to the efficiency of this machine. We can't afford the ever increasing burden of taxes taken from us by all levels of government. It's time government is forced to live in the real world like us. They have to learn our pockets are not bottomless and they can't continue to keep raising taxes and assessments or inventing new and improved user fees. it's time they created new and improved ways to spend our money. Take a good look at this machine and imagine what it would mean to us, the HRM taxpayer in savings, then let Council know by E Mailing them using the E Mail lists on the left had side of the page.
http://www.asphaltzipper.com/what-it-does/road-and-street-repairs/applications/



Bruce DeVenne

The Truth About The Big Tax Shift in HRM Thanks to The Coast

Mayor Kelly and the other members of HRM Council call it "tax reform". I have referred to it as a "tax re-shuffle" from the first and this article in the coast out lines exactly what is taking place in dollars and cents. What the people forced into HRM by John Savage and Liberal Party have to remember is this: the people who you elected to represent you on council not only sat there while this took place they voted for it. Click on the URL below to see exactly what the representatives of those people in the old "county" are doing to you.

http://www.thecoast.ca/RealityBites/archives/2009/11/25/halifaxs-tax-reform-war-begins-in-earnest&cb=69298c583b288a689e33775f88b12754&sort=desc#readerComments=


For an example of real tax reform that will address the issues of assessment based taxes (plus and ever growing list of "user fees") see
http://nshrm.blogspot.com/2009/04/true-tax-reform-for-your-consideration.html

As always you can express your opinions by using the E mail index on the left.

Bruce DeVenne

EBay.com beware high and hidden shipping costs

If you are buying on E Bay and live in Canada BEWARE of the following.
Some E Bay sellers too Lazy to go to the post office and mail something. They use "Flat rate shipping and or Priority shipping. You'll see them on the site. A single train car that may cost you $3 or $4 to buy then they want $25 or more to ship it.

Federal Express (Fed Ex) and United Parcel Service (UPS) will both bring your item in through Montreal. You may get a "shipping fee" from the seller for $10 or so BUT beware. When Fed Ex or UPS brings it through the customs they will send you a bill for $40 or more dollars extra because the "Brokered" you parcel. This means they've collected the sales tax. The straight postal service also collects sales tax but only charge $5 for the service.

I bought an Item for $25 and the seller shipped it to me via UPS and they wanted $50 before they would deliver it and they have your parcel. You pay it or good-bye parcel. I fought it out and got it for what the post office would have charged but you won't do this to often avoid these horrendous extra charges avoid these three methods of shipping at all costs.

Here we go again. This time H1N1

To quote Yogi Berra . "It's Deja-vu all over again". First HIV in the blood then Hep C in the blood and with the H1N1 pandemic looming the Canadian Governments are, once again showing their total inability to deal with any type of crises.Who should be vaccinated? Depends on what province you live in. How is the vaccine given out? Haphazardly instead of through private physicians. How much vaccine is available? No where near enough. Who are the busiest people involved in this? The spin doctors.
Knowing the Governments' past record we can be sure of a few things. The job will never be fully and properly done. Canadians will die needlessly and, somewhere down the line, a group of class action lawyers will become instant multi-millionaires rubber stamping some government compensation deal.

In the mean time there will be no problem finding money like the $4 billion Ottawa spent trying to buy a seat or two in Quebec by-elections. Money to run be-elections because politicians quit after being elected Andrew Younger and Rodney MacDonald to mention a couple). The millions spent by provincial and civic politicians under the title "discretionary spending" where public funds are passed out by politicians with no public scrutiny or accountability.

It never fails to amaze me the money that's available for this list while the blood supply was allowed to run unprotected, health care regularly declines, user fees expand their base and increase in amounts and taxes on your home increase annually.

If you are happy with the taxes you pay and the services you receive for those taxes fine if you are not get on the phone, fax machine or e mail and tell them. I ran for council last year and one thing I heard frequently was, "I don't vote you're all the same". Here's the NDP's chance to prove they are better. Get the vaccine out....to everybody. Yes everybody! Despite what the spin doctors are telling us people that, according to them, don't have to be vaccinated, are dying from swine flu on a regular basis.

To contact any member of city council or other political leaders simple click on their name on the left speak up now. Tell them enough is enough to get their acts together.

Canada Post and other government cash grabs at all levels

I received a small parcel from Idaho. Postal cost, $5.99 USA ($6.25 CDN). I asked the postal clerk how much to mail it back. She weighed it and said, $11.40 over 75% more but, she added, it's going out of the country so you don't have to pay GST. Going to a Canadian address you'd have an extra 13% GST tacked on. I raised this issue with my MP, Peter Stoffer NDP, and he explained that the Post Office is no longer a government service but is now a Crown Cooperation. As such they are operating with annual profits which they turn over to the federal government. They have turned over hundreds of millions over the years. Canada Postal Service? Just another way to gouge the public.This great Canadian institution sells flat rate shipping to the USA giant E Bay but refuses it to Canadians and Canadian companies. As usual we are bled to the max.
A new outfit on the scene, the Canadian Internet Registration Authority or CIRA, deemed necessary and mandated into existence by Ottawa but not paid for by Ottawa. The extra $8 plus that is costs to register a .CA name goes to these people. Thy collect over $10 million a year from Canadians using .CA web sites.
Last (in this letter) but not least the combined $76 billion dollars drained from UIC and Canada pensions. Successive federal governments have raided these funds taking $56 billion from UIC and $20 billion from the pension funds. Illegal you say? It would be in the private sector but the politically appointed hacks on the Supreme Court ruled in Ottawa's favour in both these cases. How does Ottawa plan on covering these loses? Easy by going back into the bottomless pockets of the Canadian tax payer and worker. UIC rates will be rising shortly. Every day it becomes clearer that there are two sets of laws one for the masses and one for Government. If the governments don't like the laws governing they can......

(A) Ignore them (Halifax City Council)

(B) Change them (Nova Scotia NDP Provincial government) or...

(C) Have the courts OK what you did (Ottawa).

Perhaps it's time we just all sat down and did nothing until Federal, Provincial and Civic governments start sending our money with the dedication and care that they collect it from us.

As always you can contact your elected representative using the list on the left.

Later this week, How do I tax thee, let me count the ways.