Prince George, B.C. – The Canadian Taxpayers’ Federation has released its annual Naughty and Nice List and this year a Prince George man – Irvin Leroux – tops the ‘Nice’ list.

“In a David vs. Goliath battle, the Prince George man fought the Canada Revenue Agency for 19 years over the CRA’s shoddy handing of his tax files,” said B.C. director Jordan Bateman.

“In the process, Leroux won a pivotal ruling in B.C. Supreme Court: for the first time, CRA has been deemed to owe taxpayers a “duty of care” in how they treat Canadians. Irv never recovered the money he lost because of the CRA, but his tenaciousness will help protect Santa and other Canadian taxpayers from being treated unfairly.”

Others on the ‘Nice’ list include:

• B.C. Finance Minister Mike de Jong for delivering “one of only two surplus provincial operational budgets in Canada this year.” He also noted Quebec, the other province to balance its budget, did so with the help of a $10 billion in Equalization from the rest of Canada.
• David Eby. “While the CTF doesn’t always agree with the solutions proposed by the NDP’s critic for everything, there is no doubt that Eby has kept the B.C. government’s feet to the fire.”
• B.C. Education Minister Mike Bernier for firing the Vancouver School Board. “Every other school district in the province had to make tough financial decisions, but Vancouver kept kicking the can down the road,” said Bateman. “Bernier took a lot of heat from the Vision Vancouver loyalists, but he did the right thing, and should get a nice Christmas thanks.”

The Naughty List:

• Vancouver Mayor Gregor Robertson for going “tax-mad this year.” For example, bringing in an AirBnB tax, a vacant home tax, raising property taxes twice the rate of inflation, pushing through a TransLink tax and fare hike, and then trying to tack on another tax hike to fight the “fentanyl scourge.”
• Victoria Mayor Lisa Helps for spending $144,000 for two artists-in-residence and another $7,250 for two poet laureates. “When you don’t take care of the little things, they add up,” said Bateman. “Residents and businesses are stretched thin financially in Victoria, but their mayor doesn’t seem to understand that.”
• BC Transit for spending $40,511 for an online video ad to promote a Stawamus Chief bus route that doesn’t exist.
• Andrew Jakubeit and Penticton city council for among other things adding 10 city managers during a time when the city’s population grew by just 411 people.