HomeMy WebLinkAboutHuron Expositor, 2014-04-02, Page 7Wednesday, April 2, 2014 • Huron Expositor 7
letters to the editor
Fewer gimmicks, more transparency needed in Ottawa
To the Editor;
No normal person pays close
attention to who is "in" or "out"
as finance minister, and that's a
good thing. It means the politi-
cian in question has avoided
messing up the lives of ordinary
Canadians. Still, their actions
can, and do, matter for better or
worse.
Consider what a Liberal
finance minister by the name of
Marc Lalonde did in the early
1980s to Canada's energy sector
(kneecapped it with bad policy).
Alternatively and more positively,
in the 1990s, consider how
another Liberal finance minister,
Paul Martin, wrestled Canada
away from massive deficits and
put Canada's financial house in
order. Later, he also offered tax
relief to Canadians who had seen
only ever -rising rates for several
decades.
Every politician wants to leave
a positive legacy, so some possi-
bilities for the new federal Con-
servative finance minister, Joe
Oliver.
First, do no harm. This is not as
easy as it sounds. Governments
are often tempted to interfere
and re -interfere. Fact is, for a
country to thrive, boring predict-
ability is needed. Businesses and
taxpayers can and do put up with
much from govemments but they
will still invest in a country as
long as the rules are clear and
rarely change.
Second, try practising neutral-
ity in the tax system. Your prede-
cessor, Jim Flaherty, kept
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mucking up the tax code with
ever -more gimmicky "boutique"
tax credits.
It is much better to have fewer
credits and deductions and lower
overall tax rates, be it for individ-
ual taxpayers or businesses.
When it comes to the tax system,
"lower, flatter, and simpler" is
preferable to "higher, ratcheted -
up rates, and complicated."
Third, please stop running all
those "economic action plan"
ads that brag about how spend-
ing $64 billion in taxpayer dollars
saved Canada from the recession.
For one thing, it's not true. The
recession ended in June 2009,
and most of our tax dollars were
spent after that month and in
subsequent years. And anyway,
the recession ended almost five
years ago. Isn't it time to pull the
plug on all this expensive
advertising?
Fourth, stop beating up our
foreign friends. When the Con-
servative government quashed
the potential takeover of Sas-
katchewan Potash by an Austral-
ian company, it set a terrible
precedent. The government of
Canada acted more like a banana
republic regime (i.e. Venezuela)
rather than following the Cana-
dian tradition of peace, order and
good government.
It is one thing to deny the
export of sensitive military tech-
nology bound for Iran, or to for-
bid state-owned Chinese compa-
nies from majority ownership in
Canada. (There's a reason why
Canada's government sold off
many of its own state-owned
companies in the 1980s.) But it is
quite another to forbid routine
takeovers from companies
located in friendly jurisdictions.
After all, Canada is a friendly
country, most days. It is neither
in our interest or indicative of a
free trading nation to deny takeo-
vers on spurious grounds.
Fifth, favour the general inter-
est of taxpayers and consumers
over the narrow interests of
producers.
The federal government has, at
times, made consumers and tax-
payers the policy priority, as
when it dropped some tariffs on
imports, most recently in the
Canada -South Korea free trade
agreement.
But much more can be done
here to favour the general
interest.
Government could end the
"supply management" system
for dairy and poultry products
that benefits producers but
harms consumers; it could end
subsidies to business, an action
which favours specific compa-
nies at the expense of competi-
tors and taxpayers; it could
reform compensation and pen-
sion in the government sector
that produces pay, perks and
pensions 12 per cent over the
broad private sector.
Sixth, be more transparent.
The former finance minister
spent $13.7 billion in taxpayer
cash to bail out General Motors
and Chrysler. He then falsely
claimed Chrysler had paid back
all the money (not true), and
was never terribly open about
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the money flows.
In contrast, the U.S. federal Treasury
department reports monthly and on the
web about their Troubled Asset Relief
Program (TARP). Ordinary taxpayers
could see how much money was lent out
to banks, automotive companies and
others, and how much had been paid
back In Canada, the finance department
under your predecessor produced no
such clarity; quite the opposite. It is long
overdue to produce a clearer accounting
of all that stimulus money, as well as
transparency in other government
spending.
Neutrality, smarter spending, broad-
based tax relief instead of gimmicks,
favouring consumers over producers,
and transparency; that's a legacy for
which any new finance minister should
aim.
Mark Milke
Senior Fellow at the Fraser Institute
Partnership ensures local food
gets to those who need it most
Paul Cluff
QM! Agency
Food banks throughout southwest-
ern Ontario including Huron County
Food Distribution Centre received more
than 40,000 pounds of food through
Libro Credit Union's Farms to Food
Banks program.
Eggs, milk, pork, beef and apples
were delivered to the Huron County
centre on March 25. "It is a great com-
munity project," said Mary Ellen Ziel-
man, executive director of the county
distribution centre.
Some 115 agencies have access to the
food, which is all locally grown.
Stephen Bolton, Libro Credit Union
president and CEO, said in a release
that the program provides food, creates
both an awareness of hunger, and a
sense of hope."
"Investing in our local communities
is a fundamental part of our business
and being able to leverage the rich agri-
cultural offerings in southwestern
Ontario just makes sense
Zielman praised the partnership
between food banks, Libro and Ontario
farmers. Since 2007, 540,000 pounds of
food have been given back to south-
western Ontario communities and
almost 130,000 people have benefited
from donations.
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April 18th ,2014
Deadlines are Thursday
April 17th at 2:00 pm
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Open again on Monday Apri121
Happy Easter to All!
*on Expositor