Remember the old parlor game, button, button, who’s got the button?
Someone would hide said button and someone else would search for it, getting cold or warm depending on the closeness of the search to its object.
We played the game at our house the other night when I went into a rant.
Was it because Saskatchewan is forecast to have a negative farm income for the next five years or so and I’m worried about the future of the farm? Cold.
The budget with its lack of money for health care and agriculture? Colder.
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The fact that our federal agriculture minister doesn’t appear to have a long-term plan for the farm sector? Colder yet.
The fact that the cost of an ambulance ride in our area is going up more than 60 percent and lately I have been a frequent customer? Still cold.
The news that SaskTel will probably be raising its rates significantly in the near future, adding more input costs to a beleaguered farm and rural sector? Warm.
Certain sectors of the economy welcomed the interim rate review panels in Saskatchewan, thinking they would reverse or lessen rate increases on the part of crown corporations.
That hasn’t happened. Last week, the panel approved rate increases recommended by SaskTel, finding them “generally fair and reasonable.”
Rant coming.
Rates will go up for basic telephone service for homeowners and business customers. And a new rate will be introduced: 75 cents for directory assistance calls on new listings. Hot. Blistering hot! Button found.
The new telephone books come out in November. If, after the new book is issued, I move and am given a new phone number, it won’t be in the book for another 11 months. If you want to phone me, SaskTel will charge you 75 cents to get the number that you can’t look up in the book because it isn’t there.
I guess this comes under the heading of cost recovery, the lovely phrase that government departments use to charge the public for services that their tax dollars pay for.
In other words, through our taxes, you and I pay the salaries of civil servants but every time we want them to perform a service that they are being paid to perform, we have to pay more.
One of my uncles used to say that paying income tax is a privilege. I don’t look on it quite that way, but I pay my share of taxes and rates for such things as telephone use and I resent it when I am asked to pay double.
I know I won’t change the world, but surely I’m not alone in my aggravation.
This one should be looked at again.
