Double dipping Tax collectors not part of HST efficiency strategy

15 Mar 2010

We have all heard copious comments from both sides of the political spectrum on the virtues or calamaties associated with the soon-to-be implemented, HST. And while only time will tell if it actually succeeds in its mission to make Ontario more competitive, surely one of its principle aims was to have reduced the numbers and thus the cost of the overall collection process by both the feds and the province.

Ontarians are rightly outraged at the thought of 1,250+ public sector employees in Ontario who will transfer to the federal government's tax collection arm without missing a single day of work. Where is the efficiency in that? Furthermore, they will pocket as much as $45,000 in severance pay. But wait - they haven't been severed!

British Columbia to its credit have 300 civil servants who will be joining their federal brotheren but in their case without the severance. But wait, they haven't been severed. Both provinces as we know are moving to harmonize their retail sales levies by July 1 of this year.

The two approaches are different because according to Ontario Finance Minister Dwight Duncan, the government is simply honouring the terms of the province's collective agreement with its public-sector workers. That union states its employees are entitled to severance pay because, even though they will immediately land new jobs with the feds, they will no longer work for the public service in Ontario.

Duncan says that wether its right or wrong they (the province of Ontario) want to respect the collective agreement that has been there for many years. So where is the respect for the Ontario tax payer in all of this? How does this fit in with the overall objecvtives of the HST? And why did BC's government have the foresight to not be trapped by language in a collective agreement?

According to B.C.s Finance Minsiter Colin Hansen, their affected employees are not entitled to severance because their jobs are not being terminated. They are simply transferring from one level of government to another. So why should an employee who will receive the same job security at the same pay rates receive a severance package? Short and obvious answe - they shouldn't. And how is it that B.C. has figured out that moving 300 employees to the federal side of the ledger actually helps them to trim the the size of their public sector? Can you say "efficiency"?

The Ontario government is also trimming the overall head count of its public service by 3,400 jobs, or 5 per cent, as it struggles to reduce a record $24.7-billion deficit. It would seem logical to this Chamber that the Ontario Government might also want to save itself the estimated $25 million that it will shell out in severance pay to the 1250 tax collectors - who haven't been severed.

Perhaps the Ontario Government should adopt the jargon of the anti drug campaigners in its efforts to respond the demands of this flawed collective agreement ... just say NO!

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