07) MANITOBA NDP IMPOSING UNFAIR SALES TAX HIKE

PV Manitoba Bureau

            Manitoba Tory MLAs are forcing the legislature to stay in session well into the summer, hoping to inscribe on everyone's mind that the NDP is responsible for an unpopular sales tax hike, from 7 to 8 per cent. The Tories don't really oppose the hike, so they are complaining that the NDP changed a law requiring a public referendum on the issue.

            Nearly 200 people and groups, including the Communist Party, made presentations at the Legislature on the budget bill in July. Many pointed out that workers, the poor and small business will bear the main burden of the tax. So far, the labour movement and the NDP are not budging from the tax hike, which may lead many NDP supporters to stay away from the polls in the next election, expected in one or two years.

            The Manitoba Committee of the Communist Party has issued the following statement, demanding that the NDP cancel the sales tax hike.

            The Manitoba NDP government needs to cancel the sales tax hike or withdraw its budget bill. Working families deserve better.

            The law requiring a vote on the sales tax hike which amounts to about 0.4% of Manitoba's economy should be kept. It is wrong and immoral to promise voters the right to an opinion and then yank the rug out when elected. It is an important principle to have democratic control over Manitoba's economy.

            The NDP's idea that taxes "create" a fair society is fundamentally flawed. Working people only gained social programs like medicare through struggle. Secondly, it is a failure of principle to not consider if a tax is fair or unfair. A progressive tax is always based on the ability to pay. A sales tax is always unfair to the poor, workers and small business.

            In fact, the sales tax hike is an attack on working people. Because it is a regressive tax, many workers and the poor will be forced to join the tens of thousands already using food banks to feed their families every month. They will be unable to provide other necessities and comforts to their families.

            The Selinger NDP budget reinforces inequality, poverty and economic decline, not fairness. It is a budget that helps big business, not people.

            Representing big corporate interests, the Business Council of Manitoba campaigned for a sales tax hike since 2011. The only thing business wants to share with workers is the provincial debt and the cost of inadequate social, education and jobs programs.

            The sales tax hike also deals a blow to small business and farmers, accelerating their demise.

            The Manitoba Federation of Labour endorsed the Business Council's idea for a sales tax hike at its convention last year, but this only shows that the labour movement continues to grow closer to business interests on key economic issues.

            The labour movement today, like the NDP itself, has changed from the fighting movement that created medicare, a fairer society and the creation of much of the public sector itself, into something nearly indistinguishable from big business.

            It is an important reason why union density in the private sector has plummeted by around half to 17% in 30 years. It also means that public sector workers are sitting targets unless the private sector unions find their old fighting spirit and new ways to create a fair society.

            If the NDP breaks the law on a tax referendum, then it will be easier for a Tory government to wreak havoc.

            Instead of bowing down to big business, the Selinger NDP still has a choice. It can continue to prove its loyalty to the system of big business domination that is more unfair every year. Or it can side with the large majority who will suffer from the unfair tax hike.

            The first path creates setbacks for workers; the second path leads to a fair society.

(The above article is from the September 1-15, 2013, issue of People's Voice, Canada's leading communist newspaper. Articles can be reprinted free if the source is credited. Subscription rates in Canada: $30/year, or $15 low income rate; for U.S. readers - $45 US per year; other overseas readers - $45 US or $50 CDN per year. Send to People's Voice, c/o PV Business Manager, 706 Clark Drive, Vancouver, BC,