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March 7 Dictat f Tax, Dictator of lax, | A | Price Tells Croll ; O | I ie uie iiastvcaatvs # + '"Pork-Barrel" Legislation A Seen in Levy Proceeds 6 Distribution } NCOME --TAX DICTA-- ' ' TOR" was the title be-- stowed upon Hon. David # Croll, Minister of Welfare : and Municipal Affairs, in % the Legislature yesterday by Hon. W. H. Price, former Attorney--General. Price Sees "Pork Barrel," Croll Is Silent. Honorable Triend f 3 Charging that arbitrary powers "Those municipalities won't lose| WhAt my honorable friend from Park-- were given the Minister for the dis--« anything," he rea.sgnal:d "Their hxingl dale calls a pork barrel. Pemno.lly': tribution to Ontario municipalities Of _ rights are not impaired. Their prop-- he added, as t'he House roared, "I their share of the proceeds of the erty taxes are still coming in." don't think you're the proper person Province's new income tax, Colonel Hon. Leopold Macaulay (Conserva.| to be handling a pork barrel." Price accused the Government Oof |tive, York S.) asserted the Minister of| The Minister of Welfare permitted "pork--barre! legislation." Welfare shouldn't ask the House to| this pointed reference to his race to . The issue arose when Bill 54, to |give him "a blank cheque with which| Pass with a broad smile. permit the Provincial Government to |to do something about which he hasn't| _ William Duckworth (Conservative, reimburse municipalities for the funds |yet made up his mind." "There is no| Toronto--Dovercourt) was just gaining lost through the abolition of local in-- |ascertained principle," he said, "on| momentum in a further criticism of come taxes, was introduced for |which the sharing of proceeds will be| the bill, expatiating on the misfor-- second reading, only to elicit a storm . decided." tunes of the farmer and the rural of Conservative protest that was still Then. as Mr. Croll good--naturedly| municipalities and on their need of a raging when Premier Hepburn moved declined to be drawn into debate, Mr.| share of the tax, when Premier Hep-- adjournment until Monday. Macaulay cried: burn moved adjournment of the "The amazing power thus given the '"We're willing to thresh this matter | debate. Minister to apportion what should go out cn the floor of the House, and There would be a night session of to this municipality and what to that yet you sit there like a sphinx, with | the House on Monday, he announced. one,'" protested Colonel Price, "is a tremendous responsibility. Here we hbave a tax that should in part go direct to the municipalities, yet it trickles through the Minister's fingers by Order--in--Council." * # "Practical Dictator." "Look at the power that Minister has." said the former Attorney--Gen-- _ eral. "He hamdles all the relisf now. He is a practical dictator. He handles f th: income tax with one hand,. and the Dionnes with the other. It's the greatest pork--barrel legislation I ever heard of! "See with what great power the Government is aggrandizing itselft! This was the Government that prom-- ised nothing was to be done without every member of the House expressing his opinion. I must say I'm thankful the Minister of Welfare is not han-- dling Northern expenditures as well. , "I think that in some way the mu-- -- nicipalities should get their hands on this money, without having to go to a Minister to have it ladled out. The -- rural municipalities are entitled to a share the same as anybody else. It annoys them to see it all going to the biz centres. "Then consider large municipalities like Hamilton, that are unable to set their estimates or strike their tax rate s because they don't know how much of ' this tax they are going to get. Why 'should a man in Toronto or Hamilton, who, perhaps makes his income from + wl parts of the Province, pay a tax and hand it entirely to the big mu-- nicipalities?" 4 J, J. Glass (Liberal, Toronto--St. An-- drew) said he was annovyed at the remarks of Colonel Price, "who has overnight become the champion of the rurai municipalities." What would the countryside be like if it weren't for the > . cities? he wanted to know. He paid f oratorical tribute to the cities as the corner--stones of civilization and the beart of humanitarian progress, And he referred to rural municipalities as . "havens for m&km b:hoh.shwld be paying income tax, but have escaped C to the small centres."