The little house that you see here is situated at 1314 Ste. Hélène, Ville Jacques-Cartier, the Province of Quebec.
It measures 32½ feet by 33½ feet. It has 4 rooms downstairs, and 2 small rooms upstairs. No basement. Cement floor not finished. Veranda not finished.
There is no sidewalk, and the street is not paved. The owner is Mr. Hervé Pilon.
In 1954 the house was assessed at $5,375 by the Municipality of Ville Jacques-Cartier. For 1955 they raised the assessment to $14,000.
Mr. Pilon paid $304.50 in taxes in 1954. For 1955 he would have to pay $603.00!!!
But, Mr. Pilon protested. And the town agreed to lower the assessment of his house, to $10,250. The taxes for this year will amount, then, to $471.50. Mr. Pilon does not accept this new assessment, and he will protest again. And well he may. Since last year he has added only the two little garret windows that you see. This little improvement far from justifies the increase in assessment from $5,375 to $14,000 or even $10,250.
Mr. Pilon is the owner of his house. But, nevertheless, he pays rent on his house! He pays rent in the form of taxes to Ville Jacques-Cartier. This rent amounts to $40 a month.
If Mr. Pilon were a tenant, he could appeal to the rent control authorities and perhaps have his rent lowered. But he is an owner. He paid for his house in full. And now he must pay again — this time to the municipality. Each year he must pay $471.50; i.e., about $40 a month. This is high rent for 6 small rooms — and for an owner who has paid for his house.
Most of this 'rent' collected as taxes by the town — will actually be paid over to the financiers. (See the example of Pte. aux Trembles on page 2.)
If Mr. Pilon purchased his little house with borrowed money, or through a mortgage, he actually, with interest charges, paid for the house perhaps twice in the first place; in which event he would now be called upon to pay this exorbitant rent on a home he has already paid for twice over. This is known as 'sound finance'! For whom!!.
In this manner, all property owners pay a tribute to the financiers, for whom the tax collector really works.
In this sense, our country no longer belongs to Canadians, but to the financiers who issue and control financial credit...!
Canada was settled, cleared, cultivated and built up by our forefathers and ourselves. But today our heritage is being stolen from us by the financiers who produce no real wealth. We are becoming a nation of tenants, paying tribute on our own property. Our councils and governments are mortgaging the property we paid for and nominally own, they are making debts for us and giving our homes as a guarantee to the holders of the debt. Municipal debts are mounting higher each year, and taxes following in a dizzy spiral.
Ville Jacques-Cartier is no isolated case. Nor is this system of oppressive debt something new. In Ville Jacques-Cartier, like other municipalities, the processs of mounting debt and taxation is speeding up — that's the only difference.
The financiers would seem in a hurry to devour all real wealth. And they are using the municipal councils to dispossess the owners and take from Canadians their country.
The City of Montreal is caught in this financial web. And one finds well-intentioned administrators such as Mayor Jean Drapeau making speeches to property owners on the benefits of a true or full assessment of their properties!!
In an address at the Queen's Hotel last winter, the Montreal Mayor talked of the establishment of a new kind of assessment, declaring that it was in the interest of the owner that this assessment represent as fully as possible the real value of his property. This would show a more favourable relationship between the city's debt and assessment, and presumably increase its power to borrow!!! The Mayor's address was reported in "Montréal Matin".
But to raise the assessment of property in order to borrow more money and increase the debt, would in turn mean higher taxes and more tribute to the controllers of financial credit. Such an action, Mr. Mayor, merely speeds up the process of taxation and dispossession.
Your intentions might be good, Mr. Drapeau. Your explanations might sound plausible. But the consequences would be disastrous.
Under the present financial system, our municipal governments are becoming more and more mere tax collectors and agents for financiers, compelling property owners to pay more and more rent on their own holdings in order to turn it over as interest to the merchants of debt.
This whole process tends to progressively confiscate our earnings and dispossess us of our possessions. Is this not the very objective of Communism? Carried on, would this policy, like Communism, not turn us into a nation of dispossessed tenants?
This whole system of finance and taxation is working against the interests of Canadians. It is, in fact, working in the interests of those who would undermine and destroy Canada as a free and prosperous land.
It is high time that mayors and municipal councils study and demand the Christian financial policy of Social Credit.
The foregoing notes are based upon an article by the talented writer and lecturer, Gilberte Cote-Mercier, which appeared in the June 1st issue of "Vers Demain."
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