Wes Mussio is managing partner of Mussio Goodman Law, practicing in BC, Washington State, and soon Florida. A frequent political pundit, he is a litigator and businessperson who believes in freedom and democracy.Did you hear that Surrey, BC, school district superintendent Mark Pearmain is now pulling in $527,363 a year in salary and benefits? That is almost on par with the US presidential salary of $400,000 USD, or about $553,000 CAD. CBS News notes that the US President has not had a raise in more than 20 years. Pearmain’s compensation last year was already $447,199, which was a 26% increase from the previous year’s $354,066.Are Canadian governments just picking your pocket? The Toronto city council recently voted itself a 24% raise. Federally, provincially, municipally, and regionally, politicians and bureaucrats are living large on your dime, while taxpayers are struggling to keep up. Small businesses say taxes are one of their biggest costs, and many are close to bankruptcy. At the same time, Canadians are turning to food banks in record numbers. Food Banks Canada cites nearly 2.2 million visits per month, up 5.2% from the previous year and up 99.37% since 2019.Governments know the public rarely looks closely at gross pay versus net pay until tax time or when property tax bills arrive. Then people grumble and pay. Higher taxes also get passed through to consumers in everyday prices. That is one reason your favourite coffee shop latte now costs $6: business owners face higher property, payroll, and other government costs, all passed on.One frustrated taxpayer in Toronto, Daniel Tate, pushed back with a one-minute “Taxpayer Land Acknowledgment” video that went viral. Tate begins by acknowledging “the people who fund this municipal enterprise, the Toronto taxpayer,” as also noted by the Toronto Sun. He says every word spoken in council, every light bulb, and every salary paid is funded almost entirely by taxpayers and property owners. He argues that a small group of councillors decides how much of people’s hard-earned money gets taken to fund the city..Tate says taxpayers deserve respect because without them, the institution could not indulge in ideological excesses like renaming streets and public squares, painting roads with inferior and environmentally damaging red paint, or funding harm reduction programs that leave drug paraphernalia on streets, sidewalks, parks, and playgrounds. His point is that city governments have drifted far beyond core services and into projects that many residents do not want.Toronto’s tax burden keeps rising. Including the latest 2.2% tax hike proposed by Mayor Olivia Chow, Toronto’s tax rates will have gone up by 34% over the last five years, with 20% of that coming during Chow’s last three years in office. Spending is out of control at City Hall, and residents are not getting the services they pay for. They are getting virtue signalling.Vancouver has a similar record. The city has created more questionable programs and rules that grow staff bureaucracies beyond the civic basics of first responders, garbage, parks, and libraries, which is what property taxes are supposed to fund. Vancouver property taxes have increased by more than double the inflation in many of the last ten years. A 2020 Canadian academic study found that Vancouver single-family homeowners paid the highest property taxes in Canada. The promised zero percent property tax increase in 2026 is happening in a municipal election year, while other regional government bodies like Metro Vancouver and TransLink can still raise the total tax bill beyond that promise..People in power are rewarding themselves first. They are growing giant bureaucracies, creating more rules, and hiring armies of public sector staff, while telling everyone else to tighten their belts. Canadians have been making sacrifices while leaders travel, dine well, and sign meaningless MOUs that are misrepresented as trade deals. BC Premier David Eby’s staff party reportedly included a $35,000 catered event and an open bar with US booze, which the public isn’t allowed to buy in BC liquor stores. With gas prices high and two Canadian carbon taxes embedded in fuel production, people can barely afford to travel in their own province.Optimism is sinking as Canada is now in a recession, defined as two consecutive quarters of negative economic growth. Another two negative quarters would make it a depression. The results are job losses, wage freezes, market volatility, weaker consumer spending, bankruptcies, and mortgage defaults. Meanwhile, housing remains unaffordable, as the federal Housing Minister spent $1.2 million of your tax money on cameras for homeless people. Grocery prices are punishing. Toronto is even floating government-run grocery stores. As if communism ever worked.Taxes keep rising faster than wages, public services are deteriorating, and governments keep adding debt and bureaucracy instead of solving real problems. That is not leadership. That is incompetence and arrogance.Wes Mussio is managing partner of Mussio Goodman Law, practicing in BC, Washington State, and soon Florida. A frequent political pundit, he is a litigator and businessperson who believes in freedom and democracy.
