“Each day within me I fight a silent battle of surviving yet another day without you.” —Martin Grewal
New Brunswick is one of Canada’s three Maritime Provinces (together with Prince Edward Island, and Nova Scotia) and is the only constitutionally bilingual (English–French) province. The principal cities are Fredericton, the capital, Greater Moncton, currently the largest metropolitan (CMA) area and the most populous city, and the port city of Saint John, which was the first incorporated city in Canada and largest in the province for 231 years until 2016.
In order to design a meaningful Consumer Sales Tax System (CST) for the province of New Brunswick, it was critical to understand the reality associated with the province. The population of New Brunswick in 1980 was 696,403. New Brunswick was and is one of Canada’s poorest provinces. This is due to various factors such as low productivity, small tax base and high public debts, the decline in the private sector and limited opportunities, and poor wages. All these make New Brunswick the province with the lowest household income.
Taxes on Goods and Services was the second largest source of revenue for New Brunswick after Grants from General Government Units and regrettably there were so many loopholes in the current system which was being exploited by all sizes of the companies in the province, resulting in losing a significant amount of revenue. In other words, the taxes on goods and services were collected by the owners but not remitted to the province. This was the main reason I wanted the auditors to participate in the process diligently.
Lynda decided to have the sorority monthly meeting at our place and she entertained her sorority sisters by serving nice English tea and other goodies.
Things were going reasonably well for us. The kids went back to school last month and were making friends. I felt like I was making progress at work every single day. Lunch time Gord and Tony used to come and fetch me to go for a walk which provided me with an opportunity to exchange my thoughts with both of them. There were people on my project who were not happy with that but then again they knew before I arrived in Fredericton that Gord and Tony knew me for a long time.
One day I came home and asked Lynda if she felt comfortable to get the kids to miss one day school on Friday as I was supposed to be in Saint John soon to meet with auditors. I suggested taking off on Thursday after work and staying in a nice hotel in Saint John close to the office where auditors worked. Lynda liked the idea. I did some digging about the city of Saint John before we went there:
- Saint John is a seaport city located on the Bay of Fundy in the province of New Brunswick. It is Canada’s oldest incorporated city, established by royal charter on May 18, 1785, during the reign of George III;
- The port is Canada’s third-largest port by tonnage with a cargo base that includes dry and liquid bulk, break bulk, containers, and cruise; and
- Situated in the south-central portion of the province, along the north shore of the Bay of Fundy at the mouth of the Saint John River, the city is split by the south-flowing river and the east side is bordered on the north by the Kennebecasis River where it meets the Saint John River at Grand Bay. Saint John Harbour, where the two rivers meet the Bay of Fundy, is a deep water port and ice-free all year long. Partridge Island is in the harbour.
We took off for Saint John on one Thursday late afternoon in the month of October 1980. It was only around 100 km from Fredericton which took us only around one hour to drive. My office had made the reservation for us right in the downtown of Saint John. As soon as we checked in, I asked the kids if they are interested in mooching around in the historical downtown of Saint John. While they were eager to do that they were also hungry. I asked them what they fancied and they said spaghetti.
After walking around a bit, we ended up in an Italian restaurant right in the downtown. We all enjoyed our meal. Lynda wanted to go to a department store just to walk around and I suggested I would rather go back to our hotel and spend some time reviewing the material for my long meeting tomorrow with auditors. I suggested they go ahead and mooch around some more and I would see them back at the hotel.
The next day we all had breakfast in the hotel. I told them I didn’t need the car and I was also going to have lunch with auditors. I mentioned to them the National Historic Sites if they were interested in visiting. I would see them around 5:00 PM in the hotel.
I went to the office around 8:30 AM and found auditors in the conference room ready to meet with me. It didn’t take too long for introductions. Then I was offered coffee. Holding the cup of coffee in my hand, I started telling them the purpose of my visit and asked if anybody would volunteer to take minutes of our discussions. If I remember correctly somebody by the name of David was brave enough to raise his hand. I wanted them to know that I was there to listen to their frustration for not being able to do their jobs appropriately. I said to them let’s dedicate all morning to go over the difficulties faced by you folks. After lunch we should focus on our discussions on what each of you think we should do to minimize or eliminate the obstacles associated with your jobs and boost productivity.
I was pleased that we followed through our plan and spent almost 6 hours discussing various aspects of overall auditing CST. At the same time every point discussed in the meeting was carefully documented. At the end of the session, I was completely flabbergasted with the things I learned on that day about the realities of their jobs. I decided to summarize my conclusion about our meeting by saying that I really appreciated them sharing their wisdom with me and identifying what was needed so they could do their jobs effectively and efficiently. I promised them that as far as I was concerned I will do my best to include all their ideas in the future model of the system.
However, I wanted them to understand that there are certain things that we discussed that morning that could not be included as a part of the system specifications. For instance, they identified the trends:
- Where small businesses which collect sales tax for years but never remit any part of that amount and they declare bankruptcy only to start another business in a different location and with a different ownership; and
- Where the real problem is with the big businesses, like Irving Oil. These companies are so big in the province that they don’t allow auditors to do auditing in a thorough and meaningful way.
I explained to them that these impediments cannot be removed by the new system. It may require some kind of legislation or policy change. Nevertheless, I told them that I will bring these facts to the attention of the senior management and I am sure they will look into it.
When I got to the hotel around 5:15 PM, the kids were starving again. After a nice supper in downtown Saint John, we came back to the hotel and watched TV.
The following morning after breakfast, we decided to visit the following national historic sites on Saturday:
Carleton Martello Tower in Saint John, New Brunswick, is one of the nine surviving Martello Towers in Canada. The tower dates from the War of 1812 and played a significant role in conflicts until the Second World War. The site now features a restored powder magazine, a restored barracks room, and exhibits in the tower and in the visitor centre. The tower’s roof offers a view of the city of Saint John and its harbour. Carleton Martello Tower is one of the oldest buildings in the city and has been designated as a National Historic Site of Canada since 1930. It has been open to the public since 1963;
The theatre was designed by Philadelphia architect Albert Westover and built in 1912 as the Imperial Theatre by the Keith-Albee-Orpheum Corporation vaudeville chain of New York City and their Canadian subsidiary, the Saint John Amusements Company Ltd. It opened to the public on September 19, 1913.
The theatre was designed as a modern adaptation of the Italian Renaissance, and was used both for live vaudeville acts as well as “talkies”. In 1929, it was renamed the Capitol Theatre, and like most vaudeville houses across the continent, became a cinema. From 1957 to 1982, the Imperial Theatre was used as a meeting space by the Full Gospel Assembly. In 1982 the Imperial was abandoned by the religious group; and
The Saint John City Market in Saint John, New Brunswick, is the oldest continuously-operated farmer’s market in Canada, with a charter dating from 1785. The market is located at 47 Charlotte Street.
The City Market has a unique interior roof structure, which resembles an inverted ship’s keel. Made of wooden trusses, the structure was reportedly built by unemployed ship carpenters of the day. Also, the floor slopes with the natural grade of the land. Some of the businesses in the market have been operating continuously there for more than 100 years. Facing onto Kings Square, the market is connected to the city’s indoor pedway system.
The market was designated a National Historic Site of Canada in 1986.
We came back on Sunday. There was a message from our lawyer in West Hill about our townhome. He had left his home telephone number to get in touch. When I called him back he told me that the current tenants were interested in buying the property. I asked him to hold it for a minute as I wanted to consult with Lynda. Lynda had no objections and I gave him the okay to proceed with the offer.
We were getting used to Fredericton. The kids were enjoying their classes and friends. We used to go to see Dorothy now and then and take her out for lunch. We used to meet the Scotts at the pancake restaurant in the flea market for breakfasts. However, I noticed that Lynda started scanning the newspapers for real estate listings. One day I asked her if she would like to consider owning a house instead of renting. She said there’s nothing wrong with the house where we were living but she wouldn’t mind having her own house one day. She missed decorating and re-decorating her own house again and again. She also wanted to be a little closer to the downtown and grocery stores. I told her that I will be gone soon to Toronto for a week for business and perhaps she can find a real estate agent and mooch around and see if anything interesting might be available for us. She was happy with my suggestion.
I was looking into different Sales Tax Systems being used in different provinces in order to model some of the relevant features of those systems to optimize our desired effectiveness as well as efficiency.
Canada has had a continuous stream of different sales taxes. It started in 1920, when a general sales tax was levied for the first time, to make up for the inadequacy of the other sources of taxes at the time to cover the costs of war expenditures during World War One. This tax was a turnover tax, which means that it was applied to all transactions except for the final sale by a retailer. This was replaced quickly in 1924 with the Manufacturer’s Sales Tax, which was then replaced in 1991 by the Goods and Services Tax, which in turn is slowly being integrated with provincial sales taxes into Harmonized Sales Tax systems. As research has discovered over time, many different kinds of taxation are inefficient and costly, and as a result what is considered a good tax has also changed. Thus, sales taxation has evolved to become more efficient.
The system I was looking into for the province of New Brunswick was ten years ahead of the Goods and Services Tax which was implemented in 1991 and made a mammoth difference throughout the Canadian provinces. Nevertheless, I clearly understood that focus for the system needed to be on the criteria by which a tax system is judged include equity; efficiency; economic growth; stabilization; and ease of administration and compliance.
I needed to go to Toronto to spend a week with the Ontario Provincial Tax folks. I wanted to understand their system and determine what it would take to adopt some of the features. This in spite of their system being 20 times more powerful in order to handle their total provincial population of 9 million plus. While I was in Toronto, I went to see mom and took her out for a meal. I told her she was booked for the first week of December to fly to Fredericton and she needed to make necessary arrangements with Estelle to take her to the airport.
I came back home late on Friday evening. Lynda was eager to tell me that she had seen 5 houses and she wanted me to see two of them that she thought worth considering. She had made appointments on Saturday and she appeared to be excited with the prospect of owning a property again.
I took the family out for breakfast on Saturday to the restaurant close to one of the two selected houses with appointments. After breakfast we went to inspect the properties one by one. Both houses were good and within our range. Like anything else, both houses had advantages and disadvantages depending upon what were our priorities. The kids preferred one close to the school where they would be going and Lynda had different reasons for liking the same house. That house was closer to the downtown as well as it had a two-bedroom suite in the basement which was currently rented out to students. I was surprised and asked Lynda if she would be comfortable playing the role of a landlord-lady again? She said she would give it a try. Perhaps the main reason for liking that house was that she wanted to subsidize the mortgage payments.
It took 48 hours to finalize the paper work and we ended up owning a nice house with a huge garden behind the campus of the University of New Brunswick in Fredericton. This was our fourth house that we owned since we started living together. This was the fourth school for Adam who was still in grade one.
As usual, Lynda had everything under control. She spoke to Margret and they decided together that we would have Christmas dinner in our rental home before we start moving to our new home and we would go to the Scotts for the New Year celebration. Mom had already arrived in Fredericton in the first week of December and we took her around in Fredericton to mooch around which didn’t take too long. Nevertheless, she was happy that she got to see another city in Canada and the kids were happy that their nana was home for Christmas.
Even though the official closing date was on January 2nd on Friday, we were allowed to move in between Christmas and New Year which was a great help. Although we had movers to help us with the moving, there were a few folks from the office who showed up with doughnuts to give us a hand. I found out that was the Maritime tradition. Gord apologized for not being there. It wasn’t snowing on the moving day but it was a real cold day. Lynda kept serving coffee to the folks who were helping us and everything worked out real good. I took the family out for supper and when we got back, Lynda kept organizing things the way she wanted them to be organized.
We had a nice Christmas dinner at our place with the Scotts, Tony and his wife, mom, and Dorothy.
We had a wonderful New Year celebration with the Scotts and Dorothy and mom got along very well. I went back to work on Monday the 5th and continued my meetings with the users to make sure that I captured everything they wanted to be included in the future model of the system.
When I came home one Friday, Lynda told me that we were meeting her Sorority sisters and their husbands in the downtown restaurant for a meal and chat. We left the kids with mom and went to meet those folks. It was nice to meet all those ladies with their husbands and talk about our backgrounds and everything else. We had a nice evening.
I was really pleased that finally Lynda found her “identity” where she wasn’t somebody’s wife or somebody’s mother but she had her own identity. She really enjoyed when I was introduced as Lynda’s husband.
