With wireless phone number portability now apart of the Canadian telecommunications industry, there is another important issue that needs to be covered. This involves the manufacturers and retailers of cell phones. Cell phones that are locked to a particular cellular company should not be allowed in Canada.

Imagine if you had to buy a computer if you switched internet providers? Sounds ridiculous? Well having to buy a new cell phone because you switch cellular service providers, is just as ridiculous. The main technologies in cell phones are shared throughout the industry. Why can’t I use the cell phone, that I bought, however I wish? I know that there are ways to unlock the cell phones, but this is too much of a haste to deal with and usually it requires paying shady businesses.

Consumers need to be protected more in Canada. This would also encourage the adoption of cell phones in Canada, which is currently at a low rate compared to other industrialized countries. It’s time we encourage technology, instead of making it more expensive for the people who embrace it.

I wrote an email off to the Prime Minister, environment minister/critics, revenue minister/critics, and party leaders last week.

I found that my idea was announced in a press conference, pretty much word for word. Don’t worry, I’m not asking for credit. I could care less. I’m just so excited that a politician actually took me seriously. This politician was Jack Layton. If you think this is just a partisan post, I urge you to read my email and the NDP press release.

And if you agree with this idea, please send off letters to your MP and appropriate ministers/critics and party leaders.

My email:

To: Prime Minister of Canada, Revenue Minister and Critics, Environment Minister and Critics, Party Leaders

I am writing to each one of you today, as this does concern each one of you and the portfolios you carry.

I believe that the CRA should provide free tax software to Canada. This would save money in printing, paper, logistics, etc. because less would need to be printed, which would mean less paper and less logistical planning as the software could be provided over the internet. Of course paper filing would still be needed, but it wouldn’t be as prominent.

We are in the digital age, and by continuing to have a vast amount of taxes filed through paper instead of digital means is inefficient and also has a huge impact on our environment. Thousands of trees could be saved each year and less emissions would be produced in the shipping of tax packages if this was implemented, which would help us reach our Kyoto targets. This is not just a problem immune to the CRA, but I believe it is a good place to start.

So I urge you all to consider this proposal seriously. We should be looking into new ways of doing things more efficiently, and not always relying on the traditional way of doing things.

Tyler Kinch

The NDP Press Release:

OTTAWA – Today, NDP leader Jack Layton called on the Conservative government to help Canadians move towards electronic tax filing to reduce costs and help the environment, and he thinks the government should give ordinary Canadians a tax break for doing the right thing.

The NDP is proposing that beginning in the 2008 tax year, the federal government provide all tax filers with easy-to-use interactive electronic tax software free of charge, just like they do with paper forms now. To offset a portion of the costs of the tax software in the 2007 tax year the government should give a $10 rebate to taxpayers using NETFILE.

“By encouraging Canadians to file their taxes electronically we can shrink the ecological footprint of the annual tax package by reducing printing, transportation and physical storage requirements,” Layton said. “Helping Canadians move away from paper tax forms is where government leadership is needed.”

This tax season, approximately eleven million Canadians will submit their taxes by mail using a paper tax package, while less than 4 million will file electronically using NETFILE, the Canada Revenue Agency’s free Internet transmission service.

“Right now, the government provides the portal to accept your return electronically, but doesn’t provide the forms to file electronically. Hard-working Canadians have to buy software at a cost of up to fifty dollars a year. So the government is only providing half of the solution,” Layton said. “It’s as though 40 years ago they gave you the envelope but told you to go to Eaton’s to buy the paper forms.”

“This is a plan for fairness. By modernizing the old-style tax forms and replacing them with easy to use electronic ones, ordinary Canadians will get a break at tax season for doing the right thing, by saving money for the government and helping to protect our environment,” Layton added.

Since an election will probbably be called on the environment, I believe it is very important to get the facts straight.

Thanks to Dipper Chick for the quotes:

March 22, 2007 – Green party leader Elisabeth May says “Bill C-30 – the so-called Clean Air Act – was dead on arrival at its first reading last year. . . Ongoing attempts to breathe life into the corpse are a waste of time. . . It’s time for MPs to bring down the curtain on the C-30 sideshow and get to work on climate change strategies that will drive progress towards the Kyoto targets.”
(Green Party Press Release)

February 5, 2007 - Michael Ignatieff accuses the NDP of being “engaged in a ‘double game’ by criticizing the Conservatives while working with them to rewrite the government’s legislation.”

Ignatieff says: “There’s something nauseating going on which Canadians have to notice . . . Layton gets up and pretends to oppose a government that he’s propping up. He’s got to decide what the hell he’s doing here . . . I think (propping up the Tories) is substantially reducing NDP support . . . The problem with the strategy is in Layton’s base. Any NDP voter looking at this is thinking, `Why are these guys letting the Harper government off the hook on the environment?” (Toronto Star)

And the scariest quote of all:

December 20, 2006 – Newly elected Liberal leader Stephane Dion says “Mr. Layton decided to play the game . . . I told him, at this stage I will play the game, too. (But) I will denounce it; I will denounce it at the same time . . . If I’m able to become the prime minister next spring, I will not continue this fake gesture.” (Toronto Star)

So if the NDP was not in the House of Commons and Green Party led by Elizabeth May was, the rewriting of the Clean Air Act would have never taken place. Elizabeth May admits that she didn’t want to have anything to do with the Clean Air Act. And the Liberals are just the same. Liberals think you can’t oppose legislation and try to fix it. How is it productive to just oppose everything? And the scariest thing of all is that Dion seems to think of this as a game, and he admitted to playing along. But at the end he states he will not continue playing this game if he is in power. Does that mean this legislation goes down the toilet, just because Liberal isn’t stamped on it?

It seems the only objective of the other parties is to get Harper out of power. While the NDP does have this as an objective, it realizes reality, and will work to get things done. The committee to amend the Clean Air Act was never about propping up the Conservatives, it was about getting something done for the environment.

I will be seeing Nathan Cullen tonight at an event in Calgary, I will be sure to congratulate him.

Don’t let them tell you it can’t be done.

Months ago, tons of Liberal bloggers, and news media were accusing Jack Layton for making an “alliance” with the Conservatives on the Clean Air Act. That was not true back then and it is now clear that it is not true now.

The NDP was the party who had the environment as a top campaign issue during the 2004 and 2006 elections. They were warning Canadians the dangers of global warming way before the Conservatives and Liberals jumped on the bandwagon. And when Jack Layton condemned the original Clean Air Act and was the only party who was willing to fix it, it showed that the NDP is the only party that can be trusted on the environment portfolio.

When Layton asked Harper to setup a committee to amend the Clean Air Act, Liberals were saying it was a deal with the devil. The NDP rose above that, and knew that just opposing everything and not offering solutions was not going to go anywhere. The 29 NDP MPs did what they were elected by Canadians to do, get work done. Without the NDP, the committee to amend the Clean Air Act would not have happened because the Liberals couldn’t swallow their own pride… they wanted only their name on the legislation. But thanks to the Jack Layton and the NDP, the clean air act has been amended. And there will be a much-needed piece of legislation presented to Parliament this year.

The NDP amendments that got adopted today include:

—Short-, medium- and long-term greenhouse gas targets (Instead of the Conservative’s 2050 year target.)
—Earlier deadline for regulating the industrial sector.
—A hard cap on greenhouse gas emissions from big polluters
—Leading and mandatory standards for smog-producing “air contaminants”.
—A cap and trade carbon market.
—Protected gov’t authority to regulate air pollutants and greenhouse gases.
—Effective provincial equivalency rule.
—Authority to designate “significant areas” for environmental protection.
—Programs reviewed annually. (Much needed, to stay on top of things)
—Building retrofit fund.

The only amendment of the NDP’s that didn’t get passed was to eliminate subsidies for the oil and gas sector – The Conservatives, Bloc and Liberals ruled it as out of order.

Of course the Liberals and Conservatives will take credit for these amendments. It shouldn’t matter to me who the credit is given to, as long as something gets accomplished. But I really do think it is important for voters to realize who got the work done, because if the Liberals get in again or if the Conservatives get a maority, don’t expect an overwhelming love for the environment, they’ll be too busy with other interests involving campaign donors.

9 million adult learners also forgotten in the “budget for everyone”

OTTAWA – At a time of skyrocketing tuition fees and student debt, as well as chronic underfunding for adult literacy programs, the Conservative plan to build a “knowledge advantage” for Canada takes one small step forward and two steps back, said NDP Post-Secondary Education Critic Denise Savoie (Victoria).

“With over one million students in Canada, this budget directly affects only one thousand,” said Savoie. “There’s more money to attract students from other countries than to increase access for prospective Canadian college, apprenticeship, undergraduate, medical or law students combined.”

Savoie dismissed the minor tweaks to the RESP system, which offer no benefit for parents who cannot afford to save, or who can make only modest contributions.

“We have $40 million for high-income parents of young children, and $0 for low and middle-income students and families who have to pay tuition this September,” said Savoie. “We’re unfairly asking many parents to choose between feeding or educating their kids.”

To make matters worse, students were explicitly excluded from the Working Income Tax Benefit, even though hundreds of thousands of students have to work full-time to afford their tuition fees and lower their eventual student debt.

“There is no plan for student debt, no plan to ensure that the expiring Millennium Scholarship funding remains in the system as needs-based student grants, and no plan to make education more affordable for low- and middle-income families,” said Savoie.

Finally, Savoie pointed to the omission of adult literacy funding in the budget, except for plans to download that responsibility fully to the provinces.

“Adult literacy funding was inadequate under the Liberals, and it is being gutted by the Conservatives,” said Savoie. “If we want an equitable and competitive economy, we need federal leadership on literacy, not abandonment.”

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I will post my thoughts on this later, just sharing this press release for now.