fiefdoms.sask
Telling the Truth is Dangerous
The Saskatchewan government is entrenched in corruptions large and small and exerts itself mightily to coverup rather than acknowledge and correct wrongdoing. One aspect of Saskatchewan government corruption that has hugely impacted our lives: the systemic mismanagement/failed oversight and tax manipulation/evasion schemes rampant in Saskatchewan Regional Parks and resort villages.
We have faced over six years of the discrediting and ostracization all Whistleblowers face; the trauma to the truth-tellers when, instead of their honesty being embraced as a benefit to organizations and governments, they face retaliation and harsh retribution more fitting to someone committing a criminal act. We view the loss of Ms. Wildman's retirement home and Mr. Danilak's recreational property, as punishment-for-honesty.
POLITICS and POLITICIANS HAVE WEAPONIZED the JUSTICE SYSTEM
“Be isolated, be ignored, be attacked,
be in doubt, be frightened…
… but do not be silenced.”
The Suffern Lake Park Authority, a public body performing a function of government, has used the court system to file serial actions intended to silence us and to punish us for exposing abuses of the tax processes - abuses both the governing party and the loyal opposition were aware of and are anxious to hide. As our circumstances evolved, we discovered that the issues were not isolated to Suffern Lake but are widespread, systemic and have great potential for political embarrassment giving the government of Saskatchewan and its agents clear incentive to "shoot the messenger" and hide the body.
Ms. Wildman had to sell her home, Mr. Danilak his recreational investment, but we won’t go away. Taxation, government corruption at all levels, serial abuse of the court system and judicial decisions that hide government wrongdoing and call into question the separation of government and the judiciary... these issues remain. We will continue to fight them.
In our research and efforts to protect ourselves, we have made numerous access to information requests to several Ministries, government agencies and municipal governments; requests that were often met with obstruction and delay. We are very grateful to the Office of the Privacy Commissioner where review requests are processed and the resulting reports published with recommendations to the Ministries etc.
The Commissioner made it possible for us to defend ourselves in court and press for positive change such as making oversight municipalities keep minutes and records of regional park authorities so the public can access them through Local Area FOIP. Park Authorities are not subject to the legislation.
Some of his comments made us cheer, for example the two quotes below from his decision on a Ministry of Parks application to deny us access calling us vexatious and frivolous:
"A request is not vexatious simply because a government institution is annoyed or irked because the request is for information the release of which may be uncomfortable for the government institution. [...] Further, a request is not vexatious simply because an applicant may also be involved in litigation with the government institution".
"The intention to use information obtained from an access request in a manner that is disadvantageous to the government institution does not qualify as bad faith. To the contrary, it is appropriate for requesters to seek information to publicize what they consider to be inappropriate or problematic decisions or processes undertaken by government institutions. Applicants do not need to justify a request and FOIP does not place limits on what an applicant can do with the information once access has been granted".
Thank you Commissioner Kruzeniski and staff, we have consistently tried to publicize the inappropriate and problematic decisions and processes of the Saskatchewan government!
Complaint to Ombudsman
Submitted 08/14/2022
How did you hear about us?
Referral from the Federal Attorney General
Which ministry, agency, Crown corporation or organization is your complaint about?
PCS, Justice, GR, Environment, RM of Senlac, Sask Regional Park Association, Suffern Lake Regional Park Authority
Please provide a brief summary of your complaint.
I have been reflecting on my telephone conversation of Friday, August 12, with Complaints Analyst, Kathy Upton.
My understanding of the information provided and the questions asked seems to highlight a need to clarify personal impacts from failure of Government and its agencies.
Adhering to the advice that your office does not address issues that have been before the court and that the optimal timeline is one that goes back no further than a year, I have collected a stream of governmental correspondence following court decisions rendered April 20, 2022.
Justice Zuk has directed me and John Danilak to sell my only home and his recreational property of over thirty years by October 20, 2022 at which time a Writ of Possession may be issued.
I immediately contacted a real estate agent. After receiving a copy of the lease for use in promoting our properties, she provided commentary and thereafter ceased communications. Her appraisal of the lease conditions mirrors concerns other cabin owners sent forward to the Park Authority and Ministry of Parks, Culture and Sport in May, June and July of 2021.
The Suffern Lake Regional Park cabin owner renewal lease was due January 1, 2021, but was not circulated until May 4 at which time it was imposed as a take-it-or-leave-it contract requiring owners to: sign away their right to privacy; agree to pay all court and legal fees regardless of court outcomes which is blatantly wrong in its attempts to block judicial participation; approval of purchasers by the Park Authority which limits marketability; accept newly limited annual access to their dwellings. Clauses written expressly to intimidate and grant gross empowerment to the Park Authority. No one wanted to end up losing their cabins – the situation we find ourselves in – and so the lease was signed, although some signed with the notation Vi Coactus, under duress.
As I explained, the lease is for the bare land lots which are a crown lease held by the Regional Park through the Ministry of Environment. The Crown lease requires sub leases comply with all applicable federal, provincial and municipal law. The cabin owner sub lease clause allowing the Park Authority access to privately owned dwellings was, we thought, a Charter of Rights violation. After weeks of government wasting our time, we have identified it as a Bill of Rights violation. A realization every Ministries’ legal team would have known and another indicator of government’s failure to act with integrity.
The only way for us to get adequate/fair value from the sale of our properties is to utilize a buyer-beware tactic and not disclose the lease conditions. Government oversight bodies at all levels are aware of the lease considerations. Government’s disregard of these unfair conditions indicate they would not have an issue with such deceitful sale behaviours but we have unanimously agreed that we will not expose a buyer to this situation.
Government motivation. Why? Is the top-down motivation to thwart some retired cabin owners in retaliation for “all the trouble they have caused”? Punish our persistence?
Well… YES. The Education Property Tax evasions we have identified have a province-wide impact. A multi-decade impact. A broad rural voter base impact.
Tax issues resonate.
Initially, we identified deliberate, long-term assessment/tax manipulation in our cabin community in the wake of concerns over one cabin owners’ exorbitant tax increase. Our information was submitted to Premier’s office, Ministries of Government Relations, Parks and Justice. A reporting loophole was acknowledged by CEO Irwin Blank of Saskatchewan Assessment Management Agency and subsequently corrected through an on-site, community reassessment.
Ministerial response to our query of what action was going to be taken in follow-up to our exposure of tax evasion? Justice directed us to get a lawyer! The Park Authority, the RM mandated with tax collection and the RM Administrator responsible for reporting have NOT been sanctioned in any way.
Unfortunately, or perhaps luckily for government, most people have a very limited understanding of taxation processes. Instead of outrage against their own agency defrauding them of Education Property Taxes, we were directed to get a lawyer, taken to court and government hid behind “no comment, its before the courts”.
We did persist and have identified other regional parks and resort villages evading EPT through various schemes including inappropriate exemptions awarded by involved RMs. Over $35 million in exemptions that have oh so quietly been disallowed.
Who is being taken to task for the tax evasions? FOIP responsive materials from SAMA, on behalf of GR, and the RM of Snipe Lake (Eston Riverside Regional Park) state 32 of their 99 cabins were wholly exempt due to a “misinterpretation” of legislation by a “previous” administration.
Sanctions? Recovery of avoided tax dollars? None that we are aware of. We recognize the detrimental impact on their rural voter base should government implement corrections through collections.
Yet the legislation is clear. The Ministry responsible is Government Relations. Government Relations, who responded to our request for mediated resolution with, “we have no role in your conflict”. Government Relations, who responded to a FOIP request for communications pertaining to taxation concerns at Suffern Lake Regional Park with, “we hold no responsive documents”, regardless that we provided a file referral number and had correspondence from another Ministry directed to half a dozen senior administrative GR employees.
The Education Property Tax Act (s. 3) assigns responsibility for the “establishment, operation, collection, administration or management of school tax” to the Minister of Government Relations.
18 (2) Subject to subsections (3) and (4), if a municipality has failed to levy or collect school taxes or has collected but failed to pay school taxes to the Government of Saskatchewan as required pursuant to this Act, the members of council at the time the municipality was required to collect or pay school taxes to the Government of Saskatchewan are jointly and severally liable, together with the municipality, to pay the amount of the school tax.
(3) A member of council is liable pursuant to subsection (2) only if:
(a) a certificate has been issued against the municipality by the minister for the amount of the municipality’s school tax liability and the minister has been advised that the certificate is wholly or partially unsatisfied; and
(b) the member of council knowingly:
(ii) took any other action that resulted in the municipality failing to levy, collect or pay to the Government of Saskatchewan the amount of school taxes as required by this Act and any interest and penalty on that amount.
From the Government Relations Act – responsibilities of the minister:
3(1) The minister is responsible for all matters not by law assigned to any other minister, ministry or agency of the Government of Saskatchewan relating to municipalities, municipal governance and administration and matters of an intermunicipal nature, including:
(a) coordinating, developing, implementing, evaluating and promoting policies, programs and procedures that support accountable and responsible municipal governments;
(g) coordinating, developing, implementing, evaluating and promoting policies, programs and procedures with respect to the assessment and taxation of property and the levying, collection and remittance to the Government of Saskatchewan of education property taxes in municipalities.
The history and the legislation noted above provides a clear indication as to why an RM and other agencies would see the benefit in taking Whistleblowers to court rather than paying decades of delinquent taxes. In our circumstances, senior government and RMs have allowed the Park Authority to conduct legal, social and financial attacks against us as people who identified their wrongdoing.
Given our exposure of the tax avoidance schemes at Lemsford Ferry and Eston Riverside regional parks and the retraction of $35 million worth of regional park and resort village exemptions, this has systemic province-wide considerations.
We have consistently done the right thing for the right reasons, at great personal cost. I am likely to lose my home, my retirement investment, and John his long-held rec property because we will not dupe an unsuspecting buyer, find someone too naïve to recognize the liabilities of the lease governing their purchase. Through their refusal to address and correct the wrongs of the current lease, the Saskatchewan government and its agencies have placed a price tag on our integrity.
Ironically, this all started when our leases were terminated for non-payment of taxes which was actually a mere 90 days in arrears on contested tax bills. 90 days arrears trying to leverage answers to our concerns about inequitable taxation. Not 20 years of deliberate evasion.
Thank you,
Lisa Wildman
John Danilak
Attachments: PCS Email Stream w/lease; ENV (+Premier’s Office, Executive Council, other Ministries) Email Stream; PCS FOIP stream
Supporting Documents