Where's justice for the Canadian taxpayer?

Vincent J. Curtis

7 July 22

RE: Justice for indigenous families.  Spectator editorial 7 July 22.

The House of Commons has the power it has because it began centuries ago with the power of the purse.  Thanks to that power, the executive government now rests in the hands of the steering committee of the House.

Chief among the powers of the House is the setting of taxes, and close behind is the power of budgeting.  The statement, “From 1991 until this year Ottawa knowingly discriminated against Fist Nations children by chronically underfunding the child welfare services they needed.”  is irrational.  Budgeting is a complex business, resources are finite, lots of interests need to be balanced, and if parliament decides to spend this much and no more on indigenous child welfare services, that’s it.  Justice has nothing to do with it.  This is what Canada has to give, period.  And there’s no higher authority to say otherwise – until now?

If, from some cosmic perspective, this seems retrospectively unjust, well, get in line.  Lots of good causes got “underfunded” from their perspective as the government fought inflation and then chronic deficits.  The provinces claim the feds chronically underfund Medicare.  But the budget is passed as law just like any other law, and there’s no gainsaying it, particularly not by creatures of parliament like the CHRT.  Unless, that is, you’re a progressive with a divine view of the world.

This $40 billion settlement is an injustice to the Canadian taxpayer.  The next government should abrogate it, and then abolish the CHRT whose god-like self-regard got this mess started.

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