Although this situation took place roughly 300
years ago, the window tax is a good example of how
taxes can force people to change the way they do
things. In the case of England in the 1700's, people
built houses with fewer windows. From the point of
view of the government, fewer windows meant a
decline in the tax base, so to compensate for the loss,
the government raised the tax per window in an
attempt to generate more overall revenue. Again,
instead of willingly paying it, people simply boarded
up what few windows they had left, which means the
government ended up with even less.

In Canada, we are now in the midst of a situ-
ation that is very similar to England’s window tax.
Millions of Canadians are lining up at the border
every year, buying goods and services in the U.S. in
an attempt to avoid paying Canadian taxes that are
genuinely too high. The negative effects of high
taxation in this country are forcing people to change
the way they do things; like the Brits did 300 years
ago, Canadians are boarding up windows too.

There are all kinds of windows that Canadians
are boarding up: income taxes are so high that there
are wage earners who refuse to work extra hours, or
over-time, because they know that more work simply
means that more of their earnings will go to pay
taxes. They see the tax system as producing incen-

tives for them to be less productive, or to work fewer
hours.

The tax burden on small business has reached
the point where it is increasingly difficult, if not
impossible, for the small entrepreneur to make a go
of it. Talk to just about any smal! business person,
whether they be in Stettler, Maple Creek, or Tim-
mins, Ontario, and they'll each give you an ear full
of how much money they are forced to regularly
cough up to the government.

High Canadian taxes, like the window tax so
many years ago in England, have forced a change in
the way most of us do things. Taxes on fuel, business
taxes, income taxes, and hundreds of other kinds of
taxes, have driven up the cost of production in this
country. In Ontario and British Columbia, businesses
are moving to the United States in an attempt to
avoid Canada’s high cost of production and excessive
taxes; they’re boarding up their windows.

The tragic part of this whole thing is that while
excessive taxation is destroying our capacity to be
competitive and hindering our ability to prosper as a
nation, our politicians are refusing to do anything in
yirtually every government in the nation who believe
that taxpayers should be paying yet more.

These high taxing and big spending politicians —
they are the enemies of prosperity.

Plus Sports Edition
2 wd / Bay Blue ”
AM/FM stereo Gg ao) 0
chrome w a
decor pkg jer 3120-02

-

It Pays To Advertise In

mazpa’

3026 Hwy. 16

Thornhill Mazda

Terrace, B.C., V8G 3N5

OUT SALE

azda 323 DX
7G Valae'/ Acyl /5 spd
mapeport bucket seats
full cloth interior
decor pkg.
Stk #9172-0Z

1991 Mazda B2600 4x4
Single cab / long box
Noble White /5 spd

bench seat & cloth interior

AM/FM stereo cassette

Stk # 9145-02

The <2

€ rn

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Poe
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FORD

635-7286

Dealer #7041

East

24 Terrace Review — February 28, 1992

on

ete