honeybadgerpress.ca

Equal Disclosure of Spending for all Who Receive Tax Benefits

Ottawa Sun: Nov. 2. 2013

Perhaps Brian Lilley might drop his “emancipated working class hero” act and demand that all public officials and corporate recipients of public funding be forced to reveal the exact details of their finances with the same vigor he demands of unions. I will withdraw that suggestion when these people forgo public support. Lilley supports the private member’s bill that would require unions to disclose all spending above $5,000 on the premise that, “The workers forced to make the contributions deserve to know how their money is being spent. So do members of the general public who subsidize this revenue through the tax system.”

As a taxpaying citizen I propose that the Tories expand this transparency campaign to require full and detailed financial disclosure by the Prime Minister’s Office, cabinet ministers’ offices, ambassadors, the governor general, senior military officers and the management of crown corporations who are all subsidized by the tax system. I suggest that they demand that the aforementioned parties, “…open their books to the public, provide executive salaries and report all political activities.” Any other approach is pure hypocrisy on the part of secretive empire-builders and hyper-emotional union-busters like Brian Lilley.