Friday, November 23, 2007

You can't eat a red shirt, even if it is Friday

Perhaps someone can explain this math to me, as I’m totally confused.

How does Exhibit A:

The federal government is heading for a record tax haul and another huge surplus, revealing Friday it has accumulated a $9.3-billion surplus in the first six months of the fiscal year.
Plus Exhibit B:
"Our troops get the strength they need for the hard, dangerous work we ask them to do from the support they get back home," Harper said in a brief speech to open a fundraiser for the base's family resource centre.

"So, my job, and our government's job, is to support the families just as much as we support the troops."
Possibly equal Exhibit C:
The federal government is about to stop its practice of giving extra money to Canadian soldiers posted to some of the country's most expensive cities.

Since June 2000, almost half of Canada's soldiers have been receiving a bump in their monthly salary -- the posting's living differential -- for living and working in cities with a high cost of living.


However, the Tory government will put a halt to the payments for soldiers in places such as Toronto and Ottawa.


More than 28,000 Canadian soldiers living in major urban centres currently qualify for the cost-of-living allowance.


In Toronto, soldiers would lose more than $1,200 a month, according to figures from 2004.

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4 comments:

MarcD said...

So..why do Canadian soldiers overwhelmingly support the Conservative party? Let me guess, they're too stupid to know any better, right? *rolls eyes*

Burton, Formerly Kingston said...

Actually BCer, As a CF member I have been checking all internal sources I can and I think this might be bad intelligence my friend. The CF like any other large company has a large unofficial grapevine and there is nothing coming down it about this.

Jeff said...

Kingston, I'd have a hard time believing CanWest made it up, but if they did indeed get it wrong (and I'd hope they did) then they'd certaintly have some explaining to do. I guess one possibility is this was a policy idea that perculated up from the buracracy that either hasn't been implemented or got killed at some point as it worked up the chain of command. Nevertheless, it's odd that DND and the Cons refused to comment on the report, and I think it's incumbent on McKay and DND to either deny, or confirm and explain. Because CanWest wouldn't have made it up, even if it isn't happening anymore it still had to come from somewhere.

Burton, Formerly Kingston said...

I know what you mean BCer, it came out of no where, there has been some scuttlebutt that new rates are to be released shortly but nothing about canceling the program. The rates are redone every 12 months by Treasury board and so everyone understands it is based on a common cost of living nationally set by TSB. So they basically compared all the bases, i.e. food, provincial taxs, housing etc and come up with an average. So if it cost more to live in TO they give you more but it is taxable. I am starting to wonder if Canwest mis-understood their source, plus no one else is covering it at all that I can find.