Ontario tax collectors get $45K severance, keep jobs in HST federalization deal
Thursday, March 11th, 2010
So Dwight Duncan’s argument to rationaliaze this scam is – ok, so what if we snuck this deal through under the radar of the Ontarian electorate (whom would have protested it had they known) – it’s a done deal now, and it would be besmirching our honour to go back on it. He’s completely begging the question of whether this this is even a severance. Ok, slick. You figure we’re stupid enough to buy that? Well, are we?
Flashback: HST ad campaign debuts in Ontario | Ont. deficit could linger for years: McGuinty | HST bill passes, 13% tax starts July 1 | Poll: HST equals Hated Sales Tax | Tories, Liberals, Bloc approve HST for Ontario and B.C. | Anti-HST protest at Ontario legislature spills onto Toronto streets | More HST debate fallout after Ontario Legislature sit-in | Liberals to support HST bill | Tory HST protest halts Ontario question period | Federal HST tax bill to be introduced, plays politics with law | Ontario Tories walk out to protest lack of hearings on HST | Contentious HST bill introduced in Ontario | Food under $4 to be HST-free, Ontario says | McGuinty says HST doubters exist in Liberal ranks | If passed, HST locked in through 2012 | New HST tax is fair, McGuinty says | Thousands rally against coming HST tax in BC | Flaherty offers taxpayer-funded bribe to adopt HST tax, holdout provinces demur | BC, like Ontario, moves to harmonize taxes | Ontario Liberals pressing to hide new ‘harmonized’ tax in prices | Ontario to merge GST, PST in ‘harmonized’ tax hike | EU approves free-trade talks with Canada | Canada expects EU free-trade talks soon: Stockwell Day | Harper, Sarkozy vow to work toward Canada-EU deal | CD Howe Institute backs Canada-EU deal, deep integration | Towards a new world order: Canada-EU trade proposal rivals scope of NAFTA
The Canadian Press
March 11, 2010
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| Ontario Finance Minister Dwight Duncan talks to reporters after tabling HST legislation on Nov. 16, 2009. |
More than 1,250 Ontario tax collectors will get a severance package worth up to $45,000 each despite the fact they won’t be losing their jobs.
The move, part of the province’s plan to harmonize sales taxes with Ottawa, will see the provincial collectors become federal employees, triggering a payout critics said amounted to tens of thousands of dollars to change business cards.
The opposition parties said it shows how wrong-headed the HST is, but Premier Dalton McGuinty said the province is simply honouring an existing collective agreement.
“There’s an important part of our brand as a province, as a government, when we do business with each other and when we do business with the world, is that when we give you our word, our word is our word,” McGuinty said after an unrelated event in Listowel, Ont.
“I guess the alternative is we could introduce legislation in the house and say: ‘Look, you signed a deal and we signed a deal (but) it’s no longer convenient for us to respect that deal.’
“Where does that take you?”
Earlier this week, the Ministry of Revenue quietly announced the buyouts for more than 1,250 provincial collectors who will now work for Ottawa. It says the province had signed an agreement with the Canada Revenue Agency outlining “opportunities with the CRA for all Ontario government employees impacted by harmonization.”

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The university at the centre of the climate change row over stolen e-mails has been accused of making a misleading statement to Parliament.
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The Afghan president,