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Discursive Deficits: A Feminist Perspective on the Power of Technical Knowledge in Fiscal Law and Policy*

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  18 July 2014

Lisa Philipps
Lisa Philipps
Affiliation:
Osgoode Hall Law School, York University
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Abstract

Decisions about taxation and government spending have great political significance: they affect the distribution of income and wealth and the nature and degree of class, gender and other social inequalities. However, tax and budgetary issues are frequently constructed as technical matters that can be resolved rationally according to economic, mathematical or other ostensibly neutral principles. The author examines the debate around budget deficits and recent sex equality challenges to the income tax system, and argues that both illustrate how technical discourses tend to deny the normative content of fiscal law and policy and to disqualify political opposition to the prevailing fiscal order as irrational, ideological and inexpert. The paper concludes by examining the discursive strategies of feminists and others interested in fiscal change. The author considers how feminists might respond to, and even harness, the power of technical knowledges in struggling for tax and expenditure reforms while also challenging the oppressive features and depoliticizing tendencies of such discourses.

Résumé

Les mesures fiscales et les décisions relatives aux dépenses publiques revêtent une grande importance: elles touchent la distribution du revenu et des richesses ainsi que la nature et l'étendue des inégalités d'ordre social. Toutefois, les questions d'ordres fiscal et budgétaire sont le plus souvent traitées comme des questions techniques qui commandent des solutions rationnelles reposant sur des principes économiques, mathématiques ou, du moins, en apparence neutres. Dans le présent article, l'auteure fait état du débat sur la question du déficit budgétaire et des récentes tentatives visant à dénoncer les inégalités de sexe existant dans le système fiscal; selon elle, cette polémique illustre la façon dont le jargon technique tend à masquer le contenu normatif de la politique et de la loi fiscales et à contrer toute forme d'opposition à l'ordre fiscal établi en la taxant d'irrationnelle, idéologique et simpliste. L'auteure conclut en faisant l'étude des stratégies discursives des groupes féministes et d'autres groupes visant le changement de la politique fiscale. Elle y suggère des méthodes permettant aux féministes de contrer à leur tour, sinon de neutraliser, le pouvoir du savoir technique afin d'obtenir les réformes fiscales et budgétaires voulues et remettre en question l'arbitraire et la tendance à la dépolitisation d'un tel jargon.

Type
Research Article
Information
Canadian Journal of Law and Society / La Revue Canadienne Droit et Société , Volume 11 , Issue 1 , Spring/printemps 1996 , pp. 141 - 176
Copyright
Copyright © Canadian Law and Society Association 1996

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Footnotes

*

I wish to acknowledge the helpful feedback I received on earlier versions of this paper from Neil Brooks, Judith Grbich, Marlee Kline, Greg Levine, Martha Minow, Nancy Staudt, Kathy Teghtsoonian, Mark de Weerdt, Margot Young, participants in the Critical Tax Theory Workshop held at SUNY-Buffalo School of Law in September 1995, and journal referees.

References

1. In this paper, I use the terms “deficit” and “debt” interchangeably. For clarity, however, it should be noted that a deficit is a shortfall of government revenues in relation to expenditures for any given year. Debt refers to the accumulated stock of outstanding debts owed by a government as a result of financing previous years' budget deficits.

2. R.S.C. 1985, (5th Suppl.), c.l, as am. [hereinafter ITA].

3. [1993] 4 S.C.R. 695 [hereinafter Symes].

4. [1995] 2 S.C.R. 627 [hereinafter Thibaudeau].

5. The term “fiscal policy” refers to the “[expenditure and taxation policies that underlie a government's budget.” McMenemy, See J., The Language of Canadian Politics, rev. ed. (Waterloo: Wilfred Laurier University Press, 1995).Google Scholar

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7. For a thorough and engaging analysis of the regressive elements of the tax system and how they have been exacerbated by tax policy changes since 1988, see Brooks, N., “The Changing Structure of the Canadian Tax System: Accomodating the Rich” [1993] 31 Osgoode Hall L.J. 137.Google Scholar See also Panitch, L., “Beyond the Crisis of the Tax State? From Fair Taxation to Structural Reform” in Maslove, A. M., ed., Fairness in Taxation: Exploring the Principles (Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 1993) 135.Google Scholar

8. ITA, S.117(2).

9. For a study of the incidence of personal tax expenditures by income bracket, see Hilaire, F. St., For Whom the Tax Breaks, vol. 2, no 2 (Institute for Research on Public Policy, 1996).Google Scholar A list of tax expenditures and their cost in foregone revenue is available in Government of Canada, Personal and Corporate Income Tax Expenditures (Ottawa: Department of Finance, 1993).Google Scholar See also Brooks, N., Paying for Civilized Society: The Need for Fair and Responsible Tax Reform (Ottawa: Centre for Policy Alternatives, 1990)Google Scholar; Davies, J. B., “Distributional Effects of the Lifetime Capital Gains Exemption: Single vs. Multi-Year Analysis” (1995) Canadian Public Policy (XXI Supplement) S159 CrossRefGoogle Scholar; Lahey, K., “The Small Business Credit: A Tax Expenditure Analysis” (1979) 1 Canadian Taxation 29.Google Scholar

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13. Tax statutes traditionally were subject to a strict construction rule in Canada. In recent years, the courts have ostensibly modified this rule to take into account the object and spirit of the legislation: see Stubart Investments Ltd. v. The Queen, [1984] 1 S.C.R. 536. However, in practice, the courts have continued to prefer interpretations that leave ample leeway for tax avoidance: see, for example, Johns-Manville Canada Inc. v. The Queen, [1985] 2 S.C.R. 46; McClurg v. The Queen, [1990] 3 S.C.R. 1020; The Queen v. Irving Oil Limited (1991), 126 N.R. 47 (F.C.A.) [leave to appeal to S.C.C, denied]; Antosko v. The Queen, [1994] 2 S.C.R. 312; Corporation Notre-Dame de Bon-Secours v. Communauté urbaine de Québec and City of Québec, [1994] 3 S.C.R. 3, at 19, where the Court quoted approvingly from its judgment in Johns-Manville Canada (ibid.), as follows: “reasonable uncertainty or factual ambiguity resulting from lack of explicitness in the statute should be resolved in favour of the taxpayer.” On the ability of advantaged groups to influence the bureaucratic administration of the tax system, see Sossin, L., “Redistributing Democracy: An Inquiry into Authority, Discretion and the Possibility of Engagement in the Welfare State” (1994) 26 Ottawa Law Review 1.Google Scholar

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16. Smart, C., Feminism and the Power of Law (London: Routledge, 1989) at 9 CrossRefGoogle Scholar [drawing on Foucault].

17. Thanks to Neil Brooks for this point.

18. See Arnold, B., Timing and the Taxation of Income: The Principles of Income Measurement for Tax Purposes, Canadian Tax Paper No. 71 (Toronto: Canadian Tax Foundation, 1983) C. 1 Google Scholar, on the relationship between accounting and legal principles in the determination of profit for tax purposes. See also Friesen v. Canada, [1995] 3 S.C.R. 103, where the Court referred to accounting principles to assist in determining whether the taxpayer's land qualified as “inventory” for the purposes of s. 10(1) of the ITA. Both the majority and dissenting judges accepted that express language in the ITA overrides accounting principles where the two are in conflict. However, they disagreed on whether there was such an inconsistency in the case at bar (per Major J. at 123, 124; and Iacobucci J. at 170, 171).

19. Supra note 16 at 10.

20. Ibid. at 14–20.

21. Ibid. at 17.

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25. Supra note 22 at 104.

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28. Ibid., c. 1.

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32. For a fuller discussion, see especially Philipps & Young, supra note 15 at 247–50. See also Boyd, S., “Some Postmodernist Challenges to Feminist Analysis of Law, Family and State: Ideology and Discourse in Child Custody Law” (1991) 10 Canadian Journal of Family Law 79 Google Scholar; Cossman, B., “Family Inside/Out” (1994) 44 University of Toronto Law Journal 1 CrossRefGoogle Scholar; Purvis, T. & Hunt, A., “Discourse, Ideology, Discourse, Ideology, Discourse, Ideology …” (1993) 44 British Journal of Society 473 CrossRefGoogle Scholar; Kline, M., “The Colour of Law: Ideological Representations of First Nations in Legal Discourse” (1994) 3 Social & Legal Studies 451 CrossRefGoogle Scholar; Weedon, C., Feminist Practice & Poststructuralist Theory (Oxford: Basil Blackwell, 1987) at 27–32.Google Scholar

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38. Ibid. at 453. See also authors cited at note 32.

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55. See, for example, England, P., “The Separative Self: Androcentric Bias in Neoclassical Assumptions” in Ferber, M. A. & Nelson, J. A., eds., Beyond Economic Man: Feminist Theory and Economics (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1993) 37 Google Scholar; Folbre, N. & Hartmann, H., “The Rhetoric of Self-interest: Ideology and Gender in Economic Theory” in Klamer, A., McCloskey, D. & Solow, R., eds., The Consequences of Economic Rhetoric (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1988) 184.Google Scholar

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61. Incidentally, the answers are: 1(b), 7(c), 8(c), 9(d), 11(d).

62. Postman, supra note 26.

63. “Abella's lament” The [Toronto] Globe and Mail (24 May 1995). In a similar vein, the same newspaper commented more recently that Mike Harris, the Conservative Premier of Ontario, “is not cutting out of spite. He is cutting because, unlike his predecessor [NDP Premier Bob Rae], he can count”: “Is Mike Harris Really Heartless?” The [Toronto] Globe and Mail (8 September 1995) A20.

64. Budget Speech (Ottawa: Department of Finance, Canada, 1995) at 2. More recently Martin showed that he understands the politics of speaking mathematically. In rejecting opposition calls for even more severe budgetary restraint he stated that “…draconian budgets are not difficult to write. The arithmetic is painless. But the human consequences are not.” Budget Speech (Department of Finance, Canada, 1996) at 8.

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66. Budget Speech (Ottawa: Department of Finance, Canada, 1995) at 4.

67. Budget Speech (Ottawa: Department of Finance, Canada, 1996) at 7. The budget documents indicate that expenditure cuts account for 87% of the total combined fiscal actions in the Liberal government's three budgets: Budget Plan (Department of Finance, Canada, 1996) at 11. As a result of measures announced in these budgets, total program spending will fall by $14.5 billion (12.1%) over the five-year period from 1993–1994 to 1998–1999. By the final year, the government estimates that program spending will be at its lowest, relative to GDP, since 1949–1950, and will be about 60% of what it was during the mid-1970s and mid-1980s (ibid. at 11–12).

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81. Ibid.

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83. Ibid. at 31.

84. Ibid. at 26.

85. Gonick, supra note 71 at 19.

86. Ahiakpor & Amirkhalkhali, supra note 79 at 26, 27.

87. See supra note 69.

88. See Low Income Tax Relief Working Group Report (Ontario Fair Tax Commission, December 1992).

89. Brooks, supra note 7.

90. Anderson, Wallace & Warner, supra note 77 at 630. For a view that lies somewhere in between, see Ram, R., “Additional Evidence on Causality between Government Revenue and Government Expenditure” (1987/1988) 54 Southern Economic Journal 763.CrossRefGoogle Scholar See also Cullis, J. & Jones, P., Public Finance and Public Choice (London: McGraw-Hill International, 1992) at 376–93.Google Scholar

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101. McCloskey, ibid. at 56.

102. Ibid. at c. 4.

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105. Cohen, M., “The Canadian Women's Movement and its Efforts to Influence the Canadian Economy” in Backhouse, C. & Flaherty, D., eds., Challenging Times: The Women's Movement in Canada and the United States (Montreal: McGill-Queen's University Press, 1992) 215 at 218–19Google Scholar, quoted in Brodie, supra note 65 at 47.

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113. For an overview of the gendered implications of economic restructuring policies, see I. Bakker, “Engendering Macro-Economic Policy Reform in the Era of Global Restructuring and Adjustment” in I. Bakker, ed., supra note 106, 1; M. Griffin Cohen, “The Implications of Economic Restructuring for Women: The Canadian Situation”, ibid. 103.

114. The Women and Taxation Working Group, supra note 12, executive summary at 1, made this point as follows: “[W]omen's primary responsibility for the young, the sick and the frail elderly is a critical factor in contributing to women's inequality and in determining the impact of the tax system on women as compared to men. As a result … the working group focused on the interaction of the tax system with this unpaid work.”

115. Curry Jansen, supra note 48 at 198.

116. Symes v. The Queen (1989), 89 D.T.C. 5244 (F.C.T.D.).

117. Queen v. Symes (1991) 91 D.T.C. 5397 (F.C.A.).

118. Symes, supra note 3.

119. (1994) 114 D.L.R. (4th) 261. The so-called deduction/inclusion system is set out in s. 56(l)(b) and s. 60(b) of the ITA. The federal government announced the proposed repeal of these provisions as of 1 May 1997 in its 1996 budget.

120. In a highly problematic passage of his judgment, ibid. at 271, Hugessen J.A. concluded that the different treatment of payers and recipients of child maintenance is not linked to sex because some men, though relatively small in number, are also subject to the inclusion requirement. The fact that women make up 98% of this group was not, in his view, sufficient by itself to establish an adverse effect on women as a class. For a detailed analysis of the judgment see Philipps & Young, supra note 15.

121. Thibaudeau, supra note 4.

122. See, for example, Macklin, supra note 15; Philipps, L., “ Thibaudeau v. Canada: Tax Law: Equality Rights” (1995) 4 Can. Bar Rev. 668 Google Scholar; Philipps & Young, supra note 15; Young, C., “Child Care and the Charter: Privileging the Privileged” (1994) 2 Review of Constitutional Studies 20 Google Scholar; Zweibel, E., “ Thibaudeau v. R.: Constitutional Challenge to the Taxation of Child Support Payments” (1994) 4 N.J.C.L. 305.Google Scholar

123. Herman, D., Rights of Passage: Struggles for Lesbian and Gay Legal Equality (Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 1994) at c. 7.Google Scholar

124. Ibid. at 140.

125. See Cohen, M., “The Problem of Studying Economic Man” in Miles, A. & Finn, G., eds., Feminism in Canada: From Pressure to Politics (Montreal: Black Rose, 1982)Google Scholar; see especially Nelson, J. A., Feminism, Objectivity & Economics (London: Routledge, 1996) at c. 5 Google Scholar (“Towards a Feminist Theory of the Family”).

126. See, for example, Gavigan, S. A. M., “Paradise Lost, Paradox Revisited: The Implications of Familial Ideology for Feminist, Lesbian and Gay Engagement to Law” (1993) 31 Osgoode Hall L.J. 589.Google Scholar

127. Thibaudeau, supra note 4 at 702, per lacobucci and Cory JJ.

128. Ibid. at 698.

129. Ibid. at 675.

130. Ibid. at 676.

131. Supra note 119 at 289.

132. Supra note 116 at 5249.

133. Macklin, A., “Foreign Domestic Worker: Surrogate Housewife or Mail Order Servant?” (1992) 37 McGill L.J. 681.Google Scholar See also Macklin, supra note 15.

134. I thank Nancy Staudt for helping me clarify this point.

135. Weedon, supra note 32 at 10.