and in this respect is making great strides every 

 year. The 1918 census gives the city a total of 

 117 industrial and manufacturing establishments 

 with a total capitalization of $9,490,593. These 

 give employment to 1,578 persons drawing 

 $1,863,494 in salaries and wages. The amount 

 these plants absorbed in raw materials in 1918 

 was to the value of $4,740,395 and their output 

 that year $9,737,737. Included in these industries 

 are flour mills, sash and door, foundries, machine 

 shops, soap, cement blocks, pressed bricks, 

 elevators, wire and steel works, tanning, aerated 

 waters, mattresses and cigars. There are two 

 $500,000 departmental mail order houses, an 

 abattoir, and a $2,000,000 oil refinery. 



The future of the city of Regina is no matter 

 for conjecture but, in common with other em- 

 bryo cities of the prairie west, is as assured as if 

 an accomplished fact. The phenomenal growth 

 of the past decade is a mere reflection of the 

 progress of the next. In the mammoth strides the 

 western provinces are taking in their rise to 

 world prominence as a producing territory of 

 agricultural commodities the future of their 

 centres is assured. And one of these is Regina, 

 the capital and Queen City of Saskatchewan. 



Taxation in Western Canada 



By F. J. Cowdery, Calgary, Alberta. 



In these after-the-war days, when every country is 

 endeavouring to recuperate after the terrific drains upon 

 its financial resources, and to return as soon as possible to 

 normal conditions, the question of taxation is looming 

 larger than ever in the eyes of the land owner. While no 

 sane person will object to paying his proper share towards 

 the upkeep and administration of his government, yet he 

 wants to assure himself that such profits as he is able to 

 make will not be all swallowed up in taxes of which he has 

 had no hand in levying and from which he will get no 

 direct benefits. 



We all realize that a perfectly equitable system of 

 taxation with every tax-payer and official of the exchequer 

 satisfied, is something closely approaching the millenium. 

 A system that is agreeable to a great majority of the people 

 and is adequate to the upkeep of the country, therefore, 

 is the best that we can hope to attain. Western Canada 

 considers she has such a system. 



Most people are nowadays becoming acquainted with 

 the wonderful agricultural resources of the Canadian 

 prairie provinces; of the heavy yields and prime livestock 

 raised on their low-priced lands. These people have also 

 heard of the low taxes the farmers there have to pay, yet 

 very few are acquainted with the methods of levying such 

 taxes and the manner in which the moneys thereby col- 

 lected are spent. Many thousands of American and 

 British farmers have purchased land in one or the other 

 of these prairie provinces during the past few years, and 

 many thousands have turned their eyes in their direction, 

 and to these a brief synopsis of the system of taxation in 

 force there will doubtless be of interest. 



Annual Grants from Federal Government 



It will be necessary first of all to go back to the time 

 when these three provinces of Alberta, Saskatchewan and 

 Manitoba were formed as autonomous parts of the Dom- 

 inion of Canada. At that time the Federal Government 

 reserved to itself all lands and natural resources which had 



not previously been disposed of, and in return agreed to 

 make an annual grant to each province based on its popu- 

 lation. Thus, a large part of the revenue of the provinces 

 is provided for without any direct charge on any of their 

 people. 



At the same time as this arrangement was made, the 

 Dominion Government made provision for educational 

 development by setting aside two sections in every town- 

 ship as school lands. This means that out of every 

 thirty-six square miles of land in Western Canada, 1,280 

 acres are reserved to create a fund for giving the younger 

 generation adequate educational facilities without any 

 cost to the tax-payers. From time to time these school 

 lands are sold by auction, the proceeds held in trust by the 

 Department of Education, and the income derived ex- 

 pended towards the cost of erecting and keeping up schools 

 in the rural districts. 



These two sources of revenue are one of the chief 

 reasons why taxes are so reasonable. Of course, the money 

 derived is not sufficient to meet all the expenses of edu- 

 cation, roads, telephones and all the manifold charges 

 incumbent on a new country. It is with the means 

 adopted to raise the balance that the prospective settler 

 or tax-payer is chiefly concerned. There is one point to 

 note, however. No part of the money he pays needs to be 

 appropriated to the use of the Federal Government, and, as 

 a rule, all of it is utilized in the locality in which it is 

 collected. Indeed, the governing factor in determining 

 the tax-rate is the needs of the locality. 



Method of Administration 



The general policy followed is similar in all three 

 provinces, though naturally in each one small differences 

 are bound to arise. For the purpose of administration, 

 each province is divided into cities, towns, villages, rural 

 municipalities and local improvement districts. Popula- 

 tion is the basis of determining under which heading a 

 settlement falls. To cite the case of Saskatchewan, a 

 "village" must have a minimum population of 50, a 

 "town" of 500, and a "city" of 5,000, while a rural muni- 

 cipality consists of nine townships (a township being six 

 miles square) with a minimum population of one person 

 per square mile. A local Improvement District is un- 

 organized and is under the direct legislation of the Prov- 

 incial Government. 



Each city determines its own method of taxation in 

 accordance with its charter, but it is with the rural dis- 

 tricts that we are chiefly interested. Here we find two 

 outstanding features. The first is that the "single tax" 

 has everywhere been successfully accepted. The second, 

 no less important than the first, that the governing body 

 of each municipality, or "council" as it is called, has the 

 power of deciding what the rate will be in its own partic- 

 ular district. Every farmer and member of the community 

 thus has a voice in the amount of taxes he himself will pay. 

 Since the sum raised is to be spent in the same neighbor- 

 hood, the amount levied will depend on the improvements 

 decided on in that locality. 



The system of "single tax" in force is one that has 

 been directed towards the fullest assistance to the farmer, 

 shifting the burden of taxation as much as possible from 

 the back of the man who is developing his property to that 

 of the non-resident owner who, as likely as not, is holding 

 it for a speculative profit. Taxes are paid only on the 

 land itself, which is assessed at the same valuation as 

 adjoining unimproved lands of the same class. The 

 farmer's buildings, his personal property and his improve- 

 ments are not taxed, as it is felt that the man who is 

 leaving his land unproductive should not be favored at 

 the expense of the man who is making his home there and 

 adding to the wealth both of the community and the 

 province. As an additional deterrent to land held for 

 speculation, a provincial tax of one cent an acre, known as 

 the "Wild Lands' Tax," is levied on all land which is not 

 under cultivation or used as pasturage. 



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