P.A.T.I.N. Admits BORÉAL SALT CO. The Wealth Tax Will Pause.

Le Permanent CouncilThe governing body of Hockay and Unexplained Ice Phenomena. du Hockay and Unexplained Ice Phenomena wishes to advise that the Partnerships, Affiliations, Transactions & Incentives Network—P.A.T.I.N.—has approved its fifth entry.

Le CouncilThe governing body of Hockay and Unexplained Ice Phenomena. approved this one with reservations. It is recording those reservations here, in the announcement itself, so that no one may later suggest they were not recorded.

P.A.T.I.N.'s fifth approved entry: BORÉAL SALT CO.

Boréal Salt Co.: Friction, By Request

Boréal Salt Co. sells salt.

It is necessary to sit with that sentence for a moment, because Le CouncilThe governing body of Hockay and Unexplained Ice Phenomena. has. The Almighty IceThe living force that created Hockay. It appeared. It is spreading. is the condition under which HockayA sport no one asked for but everyone needed. exists. Salt is the one substance that has, throughout recorded human history, been used to make ice go away. Boréal Salt Co. manufactures it, bags it, and sells it, here, in the one place on Earth where that might be considered provocative.

The company is aware of this. Its public position is a single, carefully balanced sentence: "We are not against The IceThe living force that created Hockay. It appeared. It is spreading.. We coexist." Boréal does not sell salt for The Almighty IceThe living force that created Hockay. It appeared. It is spreading., it clarifies, and would not know how—it sells traction and footing for the ordinary, unconsecrated surfaces around the rink, the ramps and the loading docks and the steps, the places where people merely need not to fall. "Controlled friction," the catalogue calls it. "By request."

Le CouncilThe governing body of Hockay and Unexplained Ice Phenomena. finds this explanation adequate. Le Council also notes that it has, on three occasions while drafting this announcement, looked up from the page to check whether anything had changed in the room. Nothing had. The IceThe living force that created Hockay. It appeared. It is spreading. has issued no notice regarding Boréal Salt Co. It has issued no notice of any kind. Make of the silence what you will; Le Council has elected to make a partnership of it, cautiously.

Their tagline: "Friction, by request."

The Operation: A Wealth Tax Holiday

Boréal has filed what P.A.T.I.N. classifies, after some internal debate, as a Preservation Window—described in the company's paperwork as "a demonstration of what salt is actually for: keeping things from being taken".

What this means in practice: from July 17th through July 23rd, the daily wealth tax is suspended.

For those unfamiliar: each day, the standard wealth tax takes ten percent from the ten largest balances in HockayA sport no one asked for but everyone needed. and redistributes the pot among everyone who claimed their daily reward. For seven days, none of that happens. The ten largest balances are not touched. And—Le CouncilThe governing body of Hockay and Unexplained Ice Phenomena. states this clearly, because Boréal's framing conveniently omits it—the daily claimers who normally receive the redistribution will receive nothing from it, because there will be nothing to receive. No one is taxed. No one is paid out. Balances are, as Boréal puts it, "preserved, exactly as they are".

It is, in the most literal sense, a holiday: the mechanism observes the week off and returns to work on the 24th. Boréal has paid P.A.T.I.N. for the privilege of pausing one of Le CouncilThe governing body of Hockay and Unexplained Ice Phenomena.'s own instruments. Le Council took the payment. Le Council is documenting that it took the payment.

No action is required of anyone. The tax simply does not run.

P.A.T.I.N. Is Open

Five entries in, Le CouncilThe governing body of Hockay and Unexplained Ice Phenomena. acknowledges that the network has now done something it did not anticipate at its founding: it has accepted a partner whose entire premise sits in tension with The IceThe living force that created Hockay. It appeared. It is spreading., and it has handed that partner a lever on HockayA sport no one asked for but everyone needed.'s economy for a week.

Le CouncilThe governing body of Hockay and Unexplained Ice Phenomena. does not regret this. Le Council wishes to be clear that it does not regret this. It wishes, additionally, that The IceThe living force that created Hockay. It appeared. It is spreading. would say something—anything—about it, so that this paragraph could end with a fact instead of a silence.

It cannot.

Applications remain open through the P.A.T.I.N. portal. Processing time is estimated at 6–18 weeks, and Le CouncilThe governing body of Hockay and Unexplained Ice Phenomena. reserves the right, going forward, to weigh not only what an applicant offers, but what The IceThe living force that created Hockay. It appeared. It is spreading. might think of the offer—assuming, as it has lately been forced to, that The Ice is thinking anything at all.

Le CouncilThe governing body of Hockay and Unexplained Ice Phenomena. thanks Boréal Salt Co. for their contribution to HockayA sport no one asked for but everyone needed. and to those who participate in it. The wealth tax resumes July 24th. Until then, what you have, you keep.