How much should we be taxed? From that simple question, countless byzantine volumes have been written dictating, who, what and how much get taxed. Quite literally, it's no laughing matter. Even uttering the word "tax" can bring about the death of comedy, mirth and all things good in this short life. But for all the unpleasantness associated with taxes, they are indeed necessary. The great question is not IF to tax, but whom to tax and how much.

Here in my present abode of Yellowknife, the Territorial (think State) Government recently came out and stated that due to a budget shortfall they were going to have to lay off 100 to 200 workers and cut back various programs. There was a huge uproar. Local news outlets were filled with arguments against the cutbacks, stating that it would hurt northern development, slow or stop rollouts of programs in remote communities and all that jazz. This may not make sense to southerners, but most northern communities have absolutely NO business case to even exist. Yet they still require a basic level of modern service, meaning taxpayer dollars have to fund and subsidize water systems, power grids and phone networks and the like. Without direct government funding or subsidization, service and infrastructure doesn't run. Interestingly enough northern Canada generates a significant surplus of revenue which actually helps the rest of the country, but the downside is that most of that revenue comes from mining operations... diamonds, gold, uranium, various other metals, oil.... and all of that revenue is taxed by the Federal government alone, the Territorial government can't touch it. So unless the Federal government increases their funding, the territorial gov. has to tax local individuals and businesses more heavily as their only alternative. Aint that a pickle! The obvious solution is to change the laws so that our territory can collect revenue from the big cash cows like mining, all the other provinces can do it but since we're a "territory" we're still tied heavily to the federal purse strings. There are never ending negotiations for the Northwest Territories to get more autonomy from the Feds, but any actual outcome is years away. Yay bureaucracy!

 The ensuing media campaign and public sentiment sided with the workers and programs who would get axed and put the cutbacks on hold.

The Territorial Government's response was "Ok, since we can't cut back programs we'll have to raise taxes to make up for the shortfall" Ho boy is this getting an interesting reaction! Suddenly public sentiment isn't so on-board with the workers who'd lose their jobs. The Government did a very smart thing, and somewhat sneaky at the same time- they've publicly come out with a budget document looking at all the different ways they can raise taxes, many options are definitely intended to scare the public into saying "okay, make your cuts instead!"

Among the many options listed, among them were these gems:

• An 8 % Retail and Services tax. That means all consumer goods and services go up by 8 % right away. Yowsers!!!
• Another fuel tax. Cause, you know, we don't pay enough for gas as it is.
• Another 30-50 bucks tacked onto the cost of each airline ticket in the territory. There's a LOT of air travel up here
• More "sin" taxes on alcohol and tobacco
• An additional 2% payroll tax for all employers across the board.
• Increased taxation for all insurance companies

There's lots more they listed. The above are just some of the highlights. Will they actually enact an 8 % HST (harmonized sales tax)??? Not likely. There would be probably be some kind of mob lynching on hastily constructed gallows on the frozen tundra next to the Territorial Legislature.

No, these proposals are indeed a scare tactic. The people, myself being one of them, will inevitably choose for government cuts over increased costs to ourselves. As a person, this makes me happy because I won't pay more out of pocket. Bigger picture, it makes me frustrated as the root issue isn't being addressed. There's lots of excess wealth being produced in our territory. We've got three very profitable diamond mines and a fourth is going on line soon. We've got oodles of uranium, gold (Yellowknife is built on top of several gold mines) nickel, copper, iron you name it. Not too mention the Mackenzie Valley pipeline which will run from the arctic down south. BUT, the only entity truly taxing those resources outright are the feds, who then dole some of that money back to the territory. The big business doing the mining is happy because they only deal with one source of taxation which is largely compliant to their wishes... and we are talking big bidness here, companies like Debeers, BHP Billiton, Imperial Oil and Shell, so they quite frankly want to remain in the status quo. As a result, the people actually living here and doing most of the actual work and revenue generation, also end up having to carry more and more of the tax burden. Feds win, Big Business win, local citizens of the territory lose.

Knowing how profitable our current mines are and the massive potential for future mines, this is one case in which I am more than happy to propose more taxes for the big businesses that are enjoying windfall profits from their operations on our land, which we are supporting and sustaining! By no means would this be killing the golden goose. This wouldn't even be coming close to that. Merely a redistribution of wealth that would admittedly decrease the profit margin of some very big businesses by a very small amount. In the end, everyone can win.