REGINA – It looks like Premier Scott Moe will be getting a big present from Santa Claus this Christmas, with a good word put in for him by the Canadian Taxpayers Federation.
Moe made their Taxpayer "Nice" List, avoiding the Taxpayer Naughty List of politicians who ran afoul of taxpayers this year. Those list
According to their list, Moe made the nice list because he set the industrial carbon tax to zero, making Saskatchewan the first carbon tax free province in the country. The Taxpayers Federation said that by removing the carbon tax from power bills, Moe is "saving Saskatchewan families hundreds of dollars per year.
The organization also gave Indigenous activist Hans McCarthy a spot the Taxpayer Nice List for winning a landmark court case to improve transparency for First Nations’ band members. Nova Scotia Premier Tim Houston also made it for cutting income taxes, sales taxes and small business taxes.
Parliamentary Budget Officer Jason Jacques "topped the Nice List for giving taxpayers the gift of government transparency and calling Krampus on Ottawa’s creative budget accounting,” said Franco Terrazzano, CTF Federal Director in a statement. “Alberta Premier Danielle Smith made Santa’s good books for saving taxpayers a ton of cookie dough during the teachers’ strike and getting kids back to school.”
Cape Breton gun owners also made it, for peacefully protesting the province's gun ban.
But there was a long list of politicians and bureaucrats in Santa's taxpayer doghouse this Christmas:
Ontario Premier Doug Ford topped the Taxpayer Naughty List for gifting politicians big pay raises, bringing back taxpayer-funded pensions for politicians, and making Ontario’s political welfare permanent, said the organization in a news release.
“Ford took a pay raise that would make even Ebenezer Scrooge blush: A $73,000 hike in one year,” said Terrazzano in a news release. “But Ford isn’t the only one with coal in his stocking."
“The Patron Saint of Children doesn’t like it when politicians saddle future generations with massive debt bills, so federal Finance Minister François-Philippe Champagne is on the Naughty List for borrowing tens of billions of dollars every year.
The Canada Revenue Agency was singled out for having "left Santa on hold for nearly an hour then gave Mr. Claus the wrong tax information, so those bureaucrats are on the Naughty List.”
Federal Public Safety Minister Gary Anandasangaree also made the list for targeting law-abiding Canadian firearms owners instead of going after illegal guns and criminals, according to the organization. Quebec Premier François Legault also made it as the only Premier to keep charging a consumer carbon tax. And BC Finance Minister Brenda Bailey made it for taking a "golden sleigh at taxpayers expense," with a $6,645 bill for a limo service for a four day trip to Boston.
"Even Rudolph doesn't charge that much," the organization stated.
