Walk a Kb or Two in my Moccasins- Nobody 'splained it to me like that!

Simple answers to Complex Questions and Complex Answers to Simple Questions. In real life, I'm a Greater-Toronto (Canada) Realtor with RE/MAX Hallmark Realty Ltd, Brokerage. I first joined RE/MAX in 1983 and was first Registered to Trade in Real Estate in Ontario in 1974. Formerly known as "Two-Finger Ramblings of a Forensic Acuitant turned Community Synthesizer"

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Location: Province of Greater Toronto, Ontario, Canada

Saturday, December 10, 2005

Wisdom Teeth & the Cantons' Fiscal Imbalances

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God Save the Queen!

Ahhhh, I've got that one off my chest.


For today, only two things

Income Tax = HealthCare
Every Dollar you pay in Federal & Provincial Income Taxes goes into and thru various government Consolidated Revenue Accounts, Fed & Prov. Ministries, Transfer Payment Accounts etc, etc, ( so many that you cannot trace it) and ends up creating a sum just about equal to what's Publicly spent on Healthcare.

The Provinces are indeed Constitutionally ( s.92.7) in charge of "The Establishment, Maintenance, and Management of Hospitals, Asylums, Charities, and Eleemosynary Institutions in and for the Province, other than Marine Hospitals." , but that DOES NOT SAY healthcare funding, it says what is says - Hospitals.

I remember being 'consulted' by my mother about getting my wisdom teeth extracted. She informed me that if the Dentist did it in his office, our family would have to pay and unfortunately the budget didn't allow for that kind of expense. But, I was told, if I could wait and get the extraction done 'in the hospital' it was free. (historical note -I was a teen so this was late sixties).

More on this elsewhere


The Canton/Province of Toronto
The Rt Hon Paul Jr. was in Toronto the other day proposing a ban on handguns. Subsequently, commentators have noted that 'handguns' are virtually banned already, and that the last 'great idea' on this the '$2Billion Gun Registry' was intended to address this same problem of Urban Gun Violence.

Perhaps if they looked at the Urban- Source part of the problem, rather than trying to regulate-the-sympton they'd find a better set of solutions.(scroll to "Urban Bullets").


On the 'Gun' part - I don't think anyone needs a gun in any city - too densely populated.


Which brings me to my 2nd thing for today.

The 10 provinces are NOT equal in any way, except in the minds of the Premiers (esp the small pop., small land mass ones). So here's the thing - create the Province of Toronto.

Use the watershed boundaries as set out by the provincial Government in its Greenbelt plan. This will free the rest of Ontario from the stupid regulations that big cities need that are currently applied to the 'whole' province. eg Land Speculation Tax, Rent Controls, Automobile Drive Clean etc etc Remember too, that the (fed) Gun Registry was pretty much accepted in Toronto as a 'necessary infringement' but didn't fare too well in the non-urban areas across the province and country.

With Toronto as its own province all those abovementioned 'stupid regulations" could be applied where they ARE intended and not imposed where they are not applicable.

Don't haggle about the constitutional this and that - call it a 'canton' and let the central computers sort out which money came from where and where it's got to go to.

I think ( but would dare not suggest it) that other large urban areas - Greater Montreal, Greater Ottawa-Hull, maybe Vanvouver, Calgary, Edmonton, Halifax - might be inclined to solve their own urban-rural, city-province, fiscal & legislative 'imbalances' by also becoming provinces.

In fact Switzerland is a very good 'model' for Canada.
- it's located in the middle of criss-cross trading areas,
- it's developed a value-added economy (they import raw materials and manufacture high-value items for export)
- it's a multi-language country
- it has a long history and has had many "owners" before working its kinks out
- it has a good reputation amongst the nations of the world
- it is a small country that thinks it's big


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