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Community Comment: Tax time is a reminder of the year that’s past

But hope is on the horizon. Vaccines are working, and the supplies are increasing
taxes
Everything is perfect, except for one thing…the tax deadline. Ugh.

April is a wonderful month. The blossoms are out, the weather is getting nicer, all my neighbours who have been hibernating come out of the homes and we all get to see each other again.

Everything is perfect, except for one thing…the tax deadline. Ugh.

Paying taxes is a responsibility we have as a citizen of Canada, but that’s beside the point. It’s compiling everything, looking through it, remembering what’s an expense and what isn’t, and putting it all down on the forms, or hire someone to do it for you. Either way, it’s a reflection of the year behind you, a reminder of what you did in the previous 12 months. And what a 12 months it has been.

Looking at some things from January that seemed so simple at the time, but not possible or imaginable now. Dining out, going to a concert or a hockey game, even just going to Point Roberts seem so distant. Masks? Really? The bank threw you out if you wore one of those.

I was on a cruise, celebrating a 50th birthday for a friend at the beginning of February last year, just before things started getting nasty. We had planned it for over a year. Had we gone two weeks later, I may still be sequestered on that boat. The biggest fear on the cruise was a Norovirus outbreak. Lots of sanitizing stations, and lots of buffets. Oh, how things would change in month.

Here we are, a year later, people walk around you. If you aren’t wearing a mask in a public place, you get a disapproving stare. Dr. Bonnie Henry is a household name, and we hang on her every word. There are only a handful of politicians we even listen to or show up in the news, we only hear about them when they travel outside the restrictions in place or don’t wear a mask when they should.

It’s a year we’d like to forget, but never will. Just like after 9/11, we won’t ever be the same. The next hint of a pandemic will bring travel restrictions, eliminating flights from the country of origin at the drop of a hat. Containment will be the protocol. Vaccines will become a regular occurrence to keep the virus, and any mutations, at bay.

But hope is on the horizon. Vaccines are working, and the supplies are increasing. Maybe, just maybe, we’ll be able to enjoy a more normal summer. And God willing, the poor folks from Point Roberts can soon cross the border, and we go down and check our post office boxes again.

Wouldn’t that be nice? Oh well, back to my taxes. Ugh…

Brad Sherwin, MBA is a long-time resident of South Delta, and has over 30 years’ experience in marketing, public relations and business strategy. He teaches Marketing at Douglas College, coaches hockey goalies and is Past President of Deltassist.