Influence is the Name of the Game

Another federal budget has come down without relief for technicians — who still cannot deduct the cost of their tools from income. If only one among them was a high rolling shop owner or high profile technician who could fight the good fight. Wealth and influence hardly even exists among this group.

Is there no moneyed WD or jobber who is sympathetic to the cause.

If one existed, they could cozy up to the federal Liberal party, make some strategic donations and presto, have the ear of an influential MP who could champion the tool tax issue for technicians.

As it is now, the issue doesn’t even register on the publics’ radar screen.

Having spent the better part of two decades slogging hard in the trenches trying to honestly convince our elected representatives about the validity of the case has gotten the trade exactly nowhere.

Oh, I shouldn’t say that. They have gained the sympathy of members of the standing committee on finance. Maybe it’s not sympathy so much as pity for the souls who year in and year out trudge up the Hill to plead their case for relief to the committee.

How many more years will it take for the trade to learn to stop banging its head against the wall? When will they understand how things are done in Ottawa?

Why not look at how Industry Minister Dennis Mills has championed the cause of that other disadvantaged group, the owners of NHL teams in Canada?

Ultimately unsuccessful, the bid to help the teams still went awfully far and was taken very seriously. An avalanche of negative public opinion was needed to shoot it down.

In fact, it’s only been a year or two since the issue of taxpayer assistance for NHL teams arose. It got awfully far in relatively little time. Now compare that to all the years that tool tax relief has been around.

Since when did multimillionaire owners of professional sports teams become needy recipients of taxpayer funding?

In the present unforgiving business climate with its lean and mean operating credo, isn’t it about time the NHL looked after itself, rationalized, consolidated, shrunk down in size or even disappeared? Obviously not.

Why is it that when low-paid technicians ask for a small tax break the government is all ears and listens sympathetically, but when big-time owners of sports teams come calling with cap in hand, they get much more willing to pull out the cheque book?