Dear Editor,
Get in touch with your federal government. Good luck!
This week, I was trying to correct my 2012 tax statement which was filed April 2013. I was informed of a minor infraction December 2013. It takes the federal income tax department eight months to reply and it charges interest in the meantime.
Time for a phone call to the tax department. Find the number, dial and wait. Try again. 鈥淟isten carefully to the following menu.鈥� Commands: choose 1, 2, 3, 4, 5. OK, make it 3. 鈥淟isten carefully to the following menu.鈥� Choose 1, 2, 3, 4, 5. OK, 2. Whoops, wrong number. Start again. 鈥淟isten carefully to the following menu.鈥� Choose 3, continue: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5. Continue. More numbers, delays and finally a real person.
I was hard pressed not to find a way to end it all.
This is an example of how cuts to federal government services are working.
Veterans funds for mental health services were cut on mental health day. The federal government has promised to continue providing help through general services offices or with technology.
Have you tried to get a passport in this same office? Be prepared to wait!
What level of expertise will be available? Will the inexperienced veterans be trained to use the technology鈥攑erhaps a private company could do so.
The frustration of dealing with understaffed and under-qualified services will not likely decrease the suicide rate.
For veterans it is a huge advantage to deal with staff whom they know and the same goes for the rest of us: don鈥檛 reduce the number of federal government employees who could help us.
We don鈥檛 enjoy playing phone games.
Doris Intscher
Jasper, Alta.
