WOW! $40 bucks!

Ever since I heard the good news (federal budget surplus $13 billion – $750 million tax cut coming) I’ve been wondering what I’m going to do with my $40 federal tax rebate ($750M divided by 32M Canadians). To make it worthwhile, after all $40 will only go so far, it should be spent on something that I won’t be able to do easily in, say ten years from now.

How about parking under a city bridge with a good coffee and a little, deli lunch? Something really tasty- a slice of Roquefort, baguette, green salad, espresso. My rebate should cover this. Ottawa is a city of rivers, canals and creeks and it has a lot of bridges, more than 300. Given our current rate of repair, parking under them in 10 years is going to be a hazardous activity – so I should take advantage of it now.

I could choose the Dunbar Bridge where we have a makeshift, hip-hop park, some fabulous wall murals and an undulating, reflection of the bridge pillars on the water. Upstream there are dancing rapids and downstream royal swans sail. Then again, I could go right downtown and choose an urban ‘under the bridge’ experience where buskers and tourist boat traffic connect with the eccentric and the homeless make for interesting moments.

I know what you’re thinking - this city councillor is pathetic. There’s got to be a better way to spend my 40 dollars. But let’s face it; $40 is not going to get me a ship cruise across the Northwest Passage and why rush? The Arctic passage will be even more navigable in ten years, not less. There’s no need to check it off my ‘must do’ list today, although it sounds like polar bear sightings are going to get rarer.

Maybe I’ll buy a full colour photograph of a polar bear and have it framed for my office. Because there’s some question as to whether these old carnivores are still going to be paddling around the Arctic ten years from now. Yes, a really good, colour photograph of a polar bear sounds like a wise investment. Sadly, I discovered $40 will not buy me the photograph and the frame. Perhaps I could send the $40 back to the government to help them out with the ‘endangered species’ program that they recently cut, but it won’t go far there either. Protecting endangered species costs way more. Scratch that off my list.

Sending it back to the government is contrary to the spirit of the rebate. It’s about me; the government is returning the money for me to use, not save endangered species.  Nonetheless there’s nothing wrong with noble impulses if not for bears then for people. My daughter and son-in-law are spending thousands for child care, I’ll pass along my $40 to them. Forty dollars should almost cover one day for ‘le petit Felix’ who is the apple of my eye. Yes, that sounds like an excellent idea.   Although, it does make you wonder, the $40 the government is so generously re-distributing across Canada adds up to a cool $725 million or thereabouts. Surely that would have gone a long way to pay for a national day care program?

No, my daughter would recognize my $40 for what it is - another covert political statement from her father. No, I’ll have to think of something else. Felix’s second birthday is coming up. They want one of those push trikes, the ones with stick at the back that you can push along so the child feels he’s really pedaling but actually Mum or Dad is briskly doing the work from behind. Yes, that will do the trick. I went down to my local toy store to prospect for the purchase and found a brightly, coloured, very handsome trike, with a sticker price $145. Yupe, $145. Scratch the trike.

Books would be good. For $40, I could get Felix some books, but then again, he will be reading by himself in ten years and the idea behind my $40 purchase was to spend it on something that I or he won’t be able to do in ten years given climate change and the general deterioration of civic infrastructure – and the planet. What about skating? Skating is becoming an indoor activity as outdoor ice disappears. Forty dollars will rent me some ice time at a city arena, if I can convince some of my friends to pony up their share of the government rebate. I call around and find I’ve got the friends and dollars required. It’s a go! 

Unfortunately, the city has no ice time available. The young woman tells me the arenas are all booked up for 2007/2008. 

I guess its back to parking under the bridge.