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Citizens, not taxpayers

Brad Wall sees us only as “taxpayers,” he does not see us as “citizens.” His approach is the essence of conservative ideology and we are the worse for it.

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We are much more than just “taxpayers” and the current provincial budget has left us reeling from its destructive force.

We have to resist in every way we can. We are “citizens,” we are a community of people, we are dependent on each other. The taxes we pay provide the base for our universal health care, public education and library systems, social security, public transportation, bridges and roads, clean water treatments, garbage collections, centres for the arts, police protection and courts of law, among other benefits.

Reducing the tax rates of those with the highest incomes and those of the big corporations is quite the wrong way to go. The fairest way to collect money from, and for, a civilized society is by a graduated income tax base, a concept which seems to have been lost but which still holds as much validity as it did years ago.

Brad Wall may be proud of himself for leaving a legacy of ever lower taxes but, like the Grant Devine years which shaped his beliefs, he will leave us only this surge of meanness and a huge deficit. His government has proven to be a menace.

Anne Smart

Saskatoon