BY KELL! HANRAHAN

Those February blues are upon us again.

Christmas bills and tui- tion payments have been payed off, leaving our pockets feel- ing a little deeper and emptier. Talk of money is the hottest thing in the air these days, as our favourite, and not-so-fa- vourite, politicians return to Parliament for the spring sit- ting. Soon Finance Minister Paul Martin will unveil the 1998 budget, which is promised to be the first balanced budget in the five years that the Liberal government has been in power. Education, thankfully, appears to be an important priority; pre- dictions of funding towards Mil- lennium Scholarships are in- creased from $1 billion to $3 billion. Perhaps all these stu- dent petitions and protests are finally starting to make an im- pact.

But there is still one more petition to which students should be penning their names.

Circulating in bookstores across Canada through the efforts ofa student named Tim Conley, this petition is seeking the abolition of GST on books, newspapers and periodicals.

After facing much criti- cism about the taxation of read- ing materials, former Prime Minister Brian Mulroney prom- ised to issue a report investi- gating the effects of this taxa- tion on literacy and the pub- lishing industry.

But this report was never made, and thus the GST re- mains. As students, we may be unaware or unconcerned with the extra costs that we are paying in tax.

Eric Gallant, manager of the UPEI Bookstore, estimates that the average student spends from $500-$700 on textbooks per semester. That amounts to about $1200 every year, $84

of which is GST. This is only a small figure compared to other costs that students are faced with in the course of their educational years, but it adds up.

GST was supposed to be

a tax on “luxury” goods and services. | think I can speak for many students when I say that lugging around a five pound, $90 Biology text is far from luxurious -- not to men- tion the frustration of being

The Cadre + i0 February 1998

A high price to pay

Students are conserned with the ridiculously high price of books

unable to sell your book sec- ond-hand the next semester, forced to serve a lifetime sen- tence with the old ball-and- chain. Textbooks and other forms of educational reading materials should be accessible

to all, yet the extra cost of tax hinders this. Sign the petition in the UPEI Bookstore, or at other bookstores across the Island, before it is sent off to Parliament in March.

Petition to ban tax on books

Students sign to abolish GST of testbooks

BY CINDY CAMERON

One man is waging war on our government's taxation of books. Tim Conley, a self- professed bibliophile from Kingston, Ontario, is distribut- ing a nation-wide petition to ban taxation of reading mate- rial.

Conley first became in- volved in the issue in 1992, when he began writing letters to the Minister of Finance to argue against the application of GST to books. Before the Mulrooney government imple- mented the GST in 1991, read- ing material was exempt from Sodeniinien Atthat time, Prime Minister Brian Mulrooney promised voters an official re- port on the effects of the tax on literacy and the publishing industry. No such report has been completed.

Tim Conley believes that the Chretien government should execute the , since they have maintained the GST.

“That report is overdue.

shown some initiatives in sup- port ofhis campaign, they ulti- mately must determine the GST’s effects on literacy and reading levels. t report is a must. Notto have the is offen- sive. It is an obligation they owe the Canadian people,” said Poverty has often been associated with low levels of

literacy. Findings of the 1994 International Adult Li

show that 33 percent of individuals in ipt of so- cial assistance who

are living below the poverty

line, were rated at the lowest levelof literacy, compared with the national average of 22 per- cent.

Currently in Prince Edward Island, consumers pay only the 7 t GST on books. Yet in Nova Scotia, New Brunswick, and New- foundland the Blended Sales Tax adds 15 percent to the price. For many consumers, reading ial has become a

item that is most often out of their economic reach. _ _ Ultimately,Conley would like to see the government re- move GST from books and

other publications. He has sent itions to approximately 30 across the country

thus far. A similar, but smaller, appeal he organized in Mon- treal last year met with out-

i that this

pe- thon will groaneven grocer voice to his crusade.

“I intend to make a lot of wank alain ie dete wrong to pay ight to read.

Students oe Conley’s petition in Bookstore.

24a HO DIVORCES

GUARANTEED!!!!

WILLIAMS & HIGGS ATTORNEYS Have one too many, and you might do something you'll regret later.