You can run and hide all you want, but there is no escape from either death or taxes.

My eventual dance with the Grim Reaper is something I’ve never worried too much about – I just hope it’s still some ways off yet.

But taxes are something that every Canadian pays through the nose, seemingly paying a larger share with every passing year.

So, it stands to reason that we should have more input in that regard, regardless of how high the politicos in Ottawa or Toronto want to jack them up.

While still months away, sports and recreation organizers in Ontario are already hearing the thunderous footsteps of the 800-pound gorilla, otherwise known as the harmonization of the Goods and Services Tax (GST) and the Provincial Sales Tax (PST) in 2010.

And no matter how you slice it, the news is not good.

When I hit the fairways at the Couchiching Golf and Country Club next spring, it’ll cost me more in membership fees to play the game I so enjoy.

When mom and dad go to sign up little Johnny or Jeannie for baseball, lacrosse, bowling or soccer, they’ll be dipping deeper into their wallets to pay for registration fees.

In the words of Dana Carvey’s Saturday Night Live character ‘The Church Lady’, “Isn’t that just special?”

At a time when we’re trying to get kids physically active and unlocked from the death grip they have on video games and home computers, Ontario Finance Minister Dwight Duncan and the federal government want to throw more of a roadblock in front of parents.

The HST puts more financial hardship on their shoulders, to the point where they might just have to pull their kids out of hockey, soccer, baseball, bowling or whatever sport they now enjoy.

Among the groups I’ve chatted with, not one can see any positive impact resulting from the harmonization of the two taxes.

A grassroots movement has begun to try and detour the harmonization move, but I’m not all that hopeful that the horse can be corralled before it escapes from the paddock.

Even if there was one good reason a politician could give for ‘blending’ the two taxes, I can think of probably six to eight reasons why it shouldn’t be passed into law.

If just one child ends up not playing his or her favourite sport next year because the fees have risen beyond the financial reach of mom and dad, then the price is way too high.

Sure I’ll still pay my golf membership next summer, but will probably buy a few less game-related items.

As for a suggestion of my own, here is one to ponder.

Instead of soaking the sports groups for extra dollars, why not raise the price of lottery tickets by a couple of bucks or add 50 cents onto a bottle of booze at the LCBO or The Beer Store?

To drop the load on sports/recreation groups is dirty pool at a time when we should be encouraging more sports and recreation involvement and not less.

Doctors and health officials are indicating we are heading into a health crisis, with rapidly escalating incidents of diabetes.

It’s a crisis we can manage if we encourage more sports/recreation involvement and not less.

Dwight Duncan, are you listening?