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4 -- PORT PERRY STAR -- Tues. February 7, 1984 * Vve cancelled my Hyp. /n case /m needed as - a pallbearer /" editorial comments chatterb by John B. McClelland THE TAX MAN Never in a million years did I think I would come to the defense of Revenue Canada, but the media recent- ly have been filled with stories on how the tax collec- tors are getting tough with Canadians. By the way, at last count, there was some 4 billion ' owing the Revenue Department by individuals and businesses. That's a fair hunk of change, no matter how you look at it. In the past few weeks, Canadians have been treated to some rather startling revelations about how the tax collectors are doing their job, and there has been a flood of sob stories from people claiming they have been abus- ed by the system. Fair enough. In any large bureacracy or corpora- tion, mistakes are made. Some of them are honest mistakes, others the result of downright incompetence or stupidity. And no doubt, the people going public with their individual stories about tax problems have some justifications. Some of the accounts I have read are truly amaz- ing, and a little bit frightening as well. But for every horror story, I wonder just how many stories there are of fine upstanding individuals and cor- porate citizens who knowingly find a way to get around their legal responsibility to pay taxes. There are people who like to brag about how they "beat the tax man,' legally or otherwise. All of a sudden, when Revenue Canada decides to ay hardball and fight back to collect some of that $4 llion owing, we get an earful of all the sob stories. The opposition parties are outraged, the business communi- ty is shocked, and so on. Funny thing, when there is a crack-down on those who cheat the welfare system, or the UIC fund, and peo- le get hauled into court for a few hundred dollars, or ve to face investigators poking around their private lives at all hours of the day or night, the whole country applauds. Welfare cheats should be locked up forever. Throw away the key. Hang them by their thumbs, etc, etc. But those who cheat on their income taxes are cats of a dif- ferent breed, of course. They deserve our sympathy. Like I said, I'm not exactly defending the Revenue Department, but I keep thinking of that $4 billion ow- ing. Surely not all of it is the result of mistakes on the part of the tax collectors. They can't be that stupid. And so they have started to lean on people a bit, try- ing to scare them, shake them up, force them to pay their taxes. Should we expect a free ride from the Revenue Department? Should we expect the Revenue Department to say "We know times are tough and you're a little short of cash. You owe $22,000, so be a good little boy, and pay us $50 per month and we'll go away and leave you alone." No wonder people joke about beating our system. I don't know why people should expect the tax department to be "reasonable,"" or bend over backwards. If you owe the bank $10,000 and can't make the payments, do you expect the bank to be reasonable? Of course not. If you're in business, are you reasonable with a consistently bad account? No. If you are, you won't be in business very long. Discretion, sure. And in some cases, there are ex- tenuating circumstances which must be taken into con- sideration. But I just don't believe that "extenuating cir- cumstances" was the cause of $4 billion owing to the government and the people of this country. There, I have more or less come to the defense of Revenue Canada. I hope the tax man doesn't read this column. He may think that because I'm sort of on their side, I must have something to hide, like a bundle of un- id taxes. Next thing I know, the tax man will be clim- ing all over my back. One final word on the tax man. Let me relate a story which happend about a year ago. A man, looking very business-like in a dark suit and white shirt, carrying a brief-case arrived at the Port Perry Star office and asked to see the editor (that's me). He identified himself from Revenue Canada and said he had a news release for publication in the paper. I read through the release quickly and it was about a person in Scarborough who had been convicted for tax evasion. The release went into detail about the amount, the fine, etc. It wasn't a great deal of money, if I remember correctly. When I asked the man from the Revenue Depart- ment why he had come from Toronto to Port Perry to deliver a news release about a fairly minor offense in Scarborough for publication in the Port Perry Star, he replied that the convicted individual was well known in the Port Perry area. I know a lot of people in Port Perry and Scugog and I didn't recognize the name. I did a little checking and it turns out the convicted man's elderly father has a cot- tage somewhere on Lake Scugog, and thé man spends a little time there with his father each summer. . I know Revenue Canada from time to time likes to inform the media about a successful prosecution for tax evasion so that stories may be printed as a warning to others, or possibly to embarrass the convicted person. But I thought they were stretching things a bit to send a rep all the way from Toronto about a case that happened in Scarborough just because the guy has some family connections in the Port Perry area. (Turn to page 8) Losers, Again Gee, we have a habit of doing things funny in this country. Take the case of the proposed dome stadium for Toronto. Last week, the provincially appointed study commis- sion headed by Hugh Macauley surprised just about everyone by suggesting the dome stadium be put up in Downsview near the 401 and the Allen Expressway. It seems that this site wasn't even among the more than 30 submissions made to the study group about possible locations. Probably, there was nobody more surprised than of- ficials with DeHavilland Aircraft who discovered that the new stadium would be sitting almost on top of one of the runways used to test new planes and train pilots of com- panies who have bought those planes. It quickly became apparent that the aircraft company could find itself bumped out of house and home and 3000 permanent jobs might go down the tubes. What's shocking about this turn of events is that even though the study group was proposing a major public facility like a domed stadium right on DeHavilland's door-step, officials with the aircraft cor- poration were not even consulted beforehand. There was a suggestion last week (and we hope it has no foundation) that putting the dome in Downsview and bumping DeHavilland is some kind of a nefarious plot to move the aircraft company to Mirabel in Montreal. In any event, the DeHavilland problem is just one of several that has cropped up even before the ink is dry on the Downsview proposal. Toronto Mayor Arthur Eggleton, smarting because his beloved CNE site was over-looked, has publicly stated he will fight '"'any way | can" to block the dome anywhere except at the good old CNE. The whole affair has all the hall-marks of turning in- to a good old-fashioned political showdown with the Ci- ty of Toronto, Metro Toronto, North York, the Provincial and the Federal governments all getting in on the action. The long and short of the squabble will be this. By the time the politicians get finished kicking the dome around, the ong-sufbring sports fans in the greater Metro area will have/grown old and grey watching the Argos and Blue Jays toil in that chicken coop they call Exhibition Stadium. | It is disgusting. Here we have everybody in sight agreeming that Toronto needs a first class domed ~ stadium somewhere and the reality is already mired in red tape and political in-fighting. What a way to do business. Can't we do anything right in this country? No wonder there are a lot of peo- ple who question our credibility to get a job done. As for Joe Average Sports Fan, he's the big loser, What This Town Needs .... February, who needs it. Without a doubt, this is the worst month of the year. Winter has been around long enough, and spring is still too far away to even start thinking about robins, daffodils and warm sunshine on your face. Some people of course, beat the heck out of February by jumping on a big silver bird bound for more temperate areas of the globe where gentle trade winds replace those icy blasts from Hudson's Bay. * For most, however, February means winter; a month of slippery sidewalks, salt-covered boots, cars that quit, Soughs and colds, heating bills, snow shovels and nasal rip. The February blahs may be a shop-worn cliche in Canada, but just the same, they hit Canadians like a ton of bricks year in and year out. What this community needs is something to break up this dreary month; something like a good old- fashioned winter carnival. tis our understanding that years ago, there used to be a winter carnival in Port Perry, but it fell by the wayside when the weather failed to co-operate for a cou- ple of years in a row" Of course, it is too late to get anything going in Port Perry for this year, but the time has come for this com- munity to start thinking about next year. A winter carnival here would not have to rival the extravaganza affair that takes place in Quebec City and (Turn to page 7)