The following examples of tax-supported public services were noted in a column by Heather Mallick, Toronto Star, April 16, 2011.
“Taxes pay for good things that we don’t think about until they vanish.”
- traffic lights
- military graveyards
- restaurant kitchen inspection
- best-before dates on cheese
- transport-truck safety
- passports
- immunization
- filtration standards for urban cremation chimneys
- crosswalk-painting
- drainage
- bank deposit insurance
- child-support enforcement
- prison guards
- chiropractor regulation
- bridges
- tunnels
- flag design
- auditors-general
- airwaves usage
- census-taking
- postal codes
- organ donation
- courts
- clean water
- weather history
- alcoholism treatment
- classrooms
- assisted reproduction
- at-risk species registration
- forest-insect slaughter
- fish conservation
- Olympic training
- vehicle registration
- name change
- international child abduction search and rescue
- building codes
- nature trails
- mental health treatment
- Ontario cemetery finding
- Toronto bike lockers
- maps
- vehicle sensors
- P.A.T.H.
- apartment standards
- First Nations statistics
- land claims
- bankruptcy
- Polar Continental Shelf tracking
- veterans
- fence disputes
- fraud and waste hotline
- leaf pickup
- snow removal
- urban forestry
- hydro
- pesticide regulation
- Great Lakes pilotage
- litter collection
- committees of adjustment
- army and navy
- autism assessment
- behavioural therapy
- border guards
- serial-killer tracking
- copyright
- Supreme Court appointments
- governors-general
- access to information
- adoption records
- critical infrastructure protection
- air-bag safety
- student loans
- agricultural income stabilization
- immigration
- embassies and consulates
- parole
- postage stamps
- streamlined customs clearance
- national do-not-call list
- forest-fire mapping
- petroleum and natural gas lands administration
- canola dealer licensing
- hunting and snaring licences
- fisheries
- elections
- pensions
- money-minting
- aviation museums
- polar ice-watching
- police college
- social assistance
- unemployment insurance
- autopsies
- notary publics
- ferries
- bingo permits
Mallick wrote: “And that was just a taste, a smattering, of what Canadians do and have done for them, the stuff that makes you want to kiss the sweet Pearson tarmac when you get home from the bloody dust of Afghanistan and never leave this good-natured civilized paved place until whatever-awaits-us extends its bony hand and says ‘Follow me.’ “
