As you know, I am at Addis Ababa with TFAA, supporting the African Union in Sudan. This month, someone in Ottawa has decided that our mission should have the Risk Level down graded from Level 2 to Level 1 and have our danger pay reduced. In addition, with Risk level reduced, the tax exemption was gone. This is retroactive to June 2006. Well, the pay system took all the taxes owed in one shot and for my Dec pay, I owed the Feds $11000.00. This is just bloody insane. I have lost 25 lbs in the last four months and got intestinal amoebic infection twice and is constanly on Anti-biotic which leaves this metallic taste in your mouth. At any given time, 60 to 70% percent of the TFAA members are down with something. In october, all members had dystentery, amoeba infection, and one repatriated member had malaria. A replacement MCPL for the clerk who was away on HLTA got Amoeba in the three weekd she was there. Now, that is not including the other aspects of hazzards and isolation typical of a tour. If that is not risk, I don’t know what is…
Reading the comments, my guess is that the relevant MP’s have already been notified. If anyone has more info or an update on this, be sure to let me know.
Another cock up by some stupid ass bureaucrats trying to save money on the backs of troops in harms way.
Hells bells its just a ‘sunny holiday in the Sudan’ while the world watches Darfur descend into the second level of Hades.
You realize of course, some bureaucrat is trying to get their “Christmas bonus” off someone else’s suffering.
Merry Christmas to our troops in the Sudan!
I would probably make the remittance out to Rev Can in lead traveling at high speed; but they are probably not worth the bullet.
This is completely unacceptable on a number of levels. The mind boggles at the ignorance and lack of foresight displayed by the decision maker(s) here. I sincerely hope and trust that we will see this decision reversed in the near future.
Does anybody else remember Harper refering to the “liberal” beurocracy..courts….senate.
Paranoid fool.
SC off.
I trust this will be dealt forthwith.
Syncro
sounds like an Ottawa bureaucrat needs a two or three month field visit to the Sudan.
Why not exempt ALL Canadian military personnel of income tax, no matter where they might be posted? A few American states have this in place I think, a considerate and meaningful gesture toward people willing to face combat for the rest of us, unable or unwilling to do so. It would also be a powerful tool to bring in the fittest and the brightest members of society as defenders of our country.
This is an Ottawa based disease or condition. No one on earth is more devoid of an imagination than Ottawa number crunchers.
Similar penny – pinching took place during the *40 – *44 convoys to help Britain defeat Hitler.
Ottawa, in their immense wisdom, put off changing from Asdic to Radar, thus causing greater loss of lives and ships in the Gulf of St. Lawrence and the North Atlantic than need have taken place.
Maybe its a ploy to enrage our troops to the point they are more vicious towards the Taliban. = TG
I’d suggest remitting the supposed amount owing($11,000) in the form of an equivalent amount of camel dung. After all, one form of BS deserves to be answered in kind, and this is an obvious case of bureaucratic bs heaped to the rafters.
I say instead of cursing the dark. Lets get in touch with our respective Mp’s, the PMO’s office, Even the media to make this decision go away. We pay their bills, so let them know it.
It never stops amazing me, how shabaly we treat those who are willing to die in our stead. This sounds like an internal power struggle in this department. Time someone with authority, put paied to it.
Welcome to the reality of the paper pushing world. They screw up your pay and they might give what is owed you next month. They think you owe them (even if it was their error in the first place) and you are down at the food bank because the government will get their pound of flesh first. Retroactive deductions are not unusual either. They say the bottom line is that you are responsible for ensuring your pay is correct but if the weenies those job is handle pay can’t give you the right or even any answer… BTW ever try to get any administrational matter dealt with while out in the field or on another continent?
I certainly hope someone looks into this and makes things right.
nothing new here folks…i was on excercise in the states, when the pay office screwed me over real good…my rent, hydro, phone, etc, etc, etc, bounced…i had to fly in by chopper as they were putting my furniture on the street…i had to eat the whole thing…no pun intended
I wouldn’t be too quick to write these off as a bureaucratic blunder. There is a change in Government from the people who appointed the bureaucrat. He/She is furious and may be apt to play games; and by law he/she cannot be fired. Nothing new here for sure.
i think carol skelton is the minister of revenue…perhaps its time for everyone to send her a christmas card.
Wow. The original post went up at 4:55 pm and it almost took 4 hours before someone blamed the Liberals for this travesty. Everyone here suffering from too much good food and drink over the holidays? First prize goes to Gunney99 at 8:39pm.
Imagine if you will, though, what everyone here would be saying if this had happened 12 months ago. It would hardly have been a bureaucrats incompetence or malfeasance at issue, to suggest so would attract accusations of “Lieberal” spin.
But consistency and principle have taken a vacation in Ottawa these years. There’s a new sheriff in town so it’s out with the old and in with the old.
Chalk it up as another example of our principles don’t apply to us.
Ted
I will contact my MP.
we will see if it gets investigated or if he is “entitled to his entitlements”. and maybe his entitlements are taxing.
Did you try and use the chain of command to look into this?Did you try a redress of grievence? After all that you can talk to the unbudsman. I would try all that before you start complaining to MPs.
Rick
Although it’s hard to say without knowing all of the details, I think that it’s highly unlikely that any mid-level bureaucrat could just arbitrarily down grade the mission risk level without some sort of direction from above. Usually, managers in the government bureacracy are afraid to make any decisions without their superiors approval (also known as the doctrine of “Cover Your Ass”). Ultimately, it’s the responsibility of the MND and the CDS to know what’s going on, so any blame should be directed at them.
BTW, those who think that having a “New Government” would change the way things work are being very naive. The policy of sending all new hires to Ottawa for “orientation” (something that was hotly debated here several months ago) is still going ahead. That’s despite a new head of Treasury Board who has had plenty of time to acquaint himself with this policy. Moreover, TB is picking up ALL of the costs associated with this orientation for the next year in order to quell the complaints from induvidual units who would be forced to pay for lost time, etc.
“Meet the new boss, same as the old boss…”
I wrote my MP. Is that colouring outside the lines? I think not. I had a rig outfit pull this bullshit on me in 93-94. My ex picked up my cheque and it was 1/2 of what it should have been.
Needless to say she was unimpressed. I phoned the office from the rig and asked for clarification…..what I got was attitude.
Six hours later I had that gutless prick by the short end of his tie and the long end was in my left.
If this man needs some gold for his family I’ll pony up. This is not done to men.
Syncro
Actually I’m with Ted on this. It is wrong to resort to any talk of this being a Liberal vs. Conservative thing. Government bureaucrats coming up with stupid ideas and carrying them out by getting a rubber-stamp from someone “higher up” but equally incompetent is not dependent on the party in power.
They’re all brain dead – no matter who is running the store. And they can’t be fired. Competence is not a job requirement for most (maybe all) governemnt positions.
However, letting the MP’s and cabinet minister know is appropriate.
I swear – every time I see something like this, I get half and urge to get behind a tax revolt. A mentor of mine pointed out that people like government workers are so dense that they can only be changed if you hurt them physically or financially. Obviously, it is wrong to do the former…so something like a tax revolt seems nice. Threaten to starve their families a little bit and you’ll suddenly wake them up.
Unfortunately government workers are too well protected to be worried about something like that.
Ted.
In the spirit of the season and non-partisanship I suggest we pool our resources and give these folks their due.
I’ve got a $100.00….howz about you?
Syncro
Ted is quite correct. If this happened a year ago, it would have been the fault of the “Librano” politicians. Instead, it is now the fault of disgruntled or incompetent bureaucrats. Funny, that.
This sort of decision is certainly made at a level where ministerial political staff are involved. If you don’t like it, take the piss out of the government. Just like you used to.
BCL
Heartless brain-dead bureaucrats exist in every government … doesn’t matter who’s in power. But; when one government is in power too long, you always end up with a large number of folks in the bureaucracy who are there because they’ve kissed up to the current administration and they feel they can’t be touched. The bureaucracy in Ottawa is particularly full of these types because the Libs were in power for so long and because the National Media gave the Libs a free pass . At this point, the crop of bureaucrats in key positions throughout the entire federal service will be Liberal stooges … it’ll take a decade to flush them out. Then, they’ll be replaced by Conservative stooges.
That’s why the best way to get results in government is always through embarrassment. Embarrass the MP, the department head, the NCO … it doesn’t matter, but get the word out when they screw up and it’d amaze you how fast things get done. I love watching when folks like Saskatchewan’s John Gormley get rock’n on the radio … often the entire course of events is changed because key people get embarrassed.
While our troops are watching out for us in far-off places, we can cover their backs at home by making it hot for the mandarins who abuse them. Then, watch things get fixed. Even brain-dead kiss up bureaucrats hate being caught.
Did he say “amoebic” infection? Sounds like something involving bowels and…feces.ICK!
My suggestion is to send a sample or two to some people in Ottawa. And of course any Liberal MP living or dead.
But that’s just me.
Hey BCL.
No money no funny. I offer you the same proposition as Ted.
Syncro
Hey Synchro. Are you suggesting that we top up the pay of every soldier that is in the field? Nice gesture, I suppose, but entirely symbolic and ultimately useless.
I have a better idea… Shame Canada’s New Conservative Government into reversing their decision. I suggest contacting the Honourable Gordon O’Connor and/or the Honourable Carol Skelton and/or the Honourable Jim Flaherty. Demand that they stop abusing our soldiers with retroactive clawbacks. Demeand that they honour the service of our soldiers by treating them fairly. Demand that they stop doing things that embarass all Canadians.
BCL
BCL
I am suggesting that in this situation we put partisanship aside and pony up in the spirit of the season and because we are men.
Albeit a symbolic gesture.
What say you?
Syncro
Why shucks, I’m finding that out dealing with the CCRA, right here in Canada. These guys are running an extortion ring out of the Winnipeg Tax Center, demading penalties and interest on “pre-paid” taxes. No amount of correspondence or chat on the phone will deter these mafiosi from their mission to harass, bully and intimidate the taxpayer on nickle and dime amounts, without even a hearing. Get used to it. The Libranos were in power for 13 years. All their mafia buddies work for the CCRA. They are into money laundering, extortion, fraud and have the full backing of the Income Tax Act. Try fighting that!
Harper and the CPC may be the “government” of the day, but the the rank and file government employees are Libranos, out to sabotage their bosses.
Speaking from experience.
Kate
I have been unable to contact you directly due to my ineptitude regarding this loginet thingy.
I would appreciate it if you would contact me regarding some follow through on this thread.
Thanx
Syncro
you can just email me at kate@katewerk.com
There’s a link on the sidebar.
Liberal apointees making an attempt to disgrace the new Conservative government. = TG
Don’t count on the regressive conservatives to sort this out. They are no different than the liberals. Unless you are patting them on the back they will not respond to letters or e-mail.
I say this not in jest but with sadness. Write off the present CF and make sure that the corupt gov gets no more cannon fodder. The only way to deal with the likes of DND CCRA and the rest is a bullet first and talk later.
Until Canadians get the guts to deal with ottawa we all might as well continuing hanging on to our ankles.
The assumption is that the bureaucratic appointee who is responsible for this pernicious action is a Liberal.
Given that the Liberals like to refer to themselves as the ‘natural governing party’ and brag about their number of years in office – and given that there’s a gaggle of Liberal trolls on this thread defending their corrupt masters by attacking the Conservatives, I’d say that it’s a pretty good assumption.
debris trail: Heartless brain-dead bureaucrats exist in every government … doesn’t matter who’s in power. But; when one government is in power too long, you always end up with a large number of folks in the bureaucracy who are there because they’ve kissed up to the current administration and they feel they can’t be touched.
Thanks for the support debris trail. There are just too many examples of “blunders” destined to p*ss off the taxpayer to assume politics is not involved. We’re reading some of them them in these posts.
Tony W for some reason wrote: “Don’t count on the regressive conservatives to sort this out. They are no different than the liberals.”
Wow. Now *there’s* someone who’s just not paying attention. The mind boggles…
Rob if you stopped being part of the bilnd cheering section and looked at what harper and gang have done you would come across as better than the liberals you critize for blind support.
What I was pointing out was that the CF is no better off now with the con than they were with the libs. I speak from experience (14 yrs) that if you join up you at best become a second class citizen. You go lower if you are (in order) anglo, male, single.
I hate to but praise this way but with the exception of the liberal government of the late 40’s and 50’s Canadian governments have been anti forces regardless of what they call themselves.
One must remember that the Canadian Forces are still under the Librana$$$ Policy via the swivel servants. You know the ones that do not like a fair Government; or the Canadian Forces. Hey they think kissing A.. is the way to go. But there again maybe thats how they like it. Decisions is not on their agenda,Period: unless so many people agree that the blame can be spread around. CYA mode.
I think there’s more to this than meets the eye. First of all I never heard of downgrading the danger pay in Dec and making it retroactive to June. That makes no sense. I say what happened is that it was downgraded in June, the pay system still paid the toops as normal and the troops spent the money.
Tony W
I think Harper and his “gang” is more for the Forces than any other government we had in years. We are getting more and better equipment and decent pay and benefits. For a guy who had 14 yrs in, you certainly have a poor view of the forces. Are you still in?
He is in a cloud of Librano$ self deception. = TG
Pay screw-ups in the military are nothing new.
Right now, my better half is waiting to see if his pay will be there tomorrow–at least he was told it was all screwed up–so we’re just crossing our fingers–I just hope this doesn’t happen while he’s in the “sandbox”.