Daily Blogger - Tuesday, March 25th, 2008
Posted on 25 March 2008 by Jack
Luc Shultz | Ontario’s economy run by monkeys
The Canadian Press reports both Dwight Duncan and Dalton McGuinty as saying that loans or subsidies to the manufacturing industry in Ontario are a better way of stimulating the province’s economy than broad corporate tax-cuts for all businesses.
This comes after the federal Finance Minister, Jim Flaherty, suggested that Ontario needs to implement corporate tax-cuts in Tuesday’s budget to keep the province from becoming a have-not province as opposed to being the engine for Canada’s economy.
Specifically, McGuinty and Duncan, his Finance Minister, claim that subsidies and loans to struggling companies that don’t generate profits are better than tax-cuts because those struggling companies wouldn’t benefit from tax-cuts since they aren’t producing any profits and therefore aren’t paying any taxes…
If you are a rational person that can add and substract, that last paragraph is probably giving you a headache. For the reader’s benefit, I will simplify: Ontario Liberals say that taking money the province raised from profitable corporations and individuals, and giving it to unprofitable corporations who will then artificially become profitable and pay taxes back to the province is a better way of stimulating the economy…
Popularity: 27% [?]
March 25th, 2008 at 10:22 am
One problem I have is the transalation on ‘loans or subsidies’ from french into english.
March 25th, 2008 at 11:49 am
If the bad boys of federal and provincial politics really want to do something useful. I have a project for them. As a parent of soon to be two university students, how about both levels of government take on the scalpers that sell textbooks to students at an alarmingly inflated cost????
Seasoned students will tell you that they’ve purchased $200.00 books never opened or requested opened by the professors. Some profs. are even suggesting to the students to buy books on line from other countries to save money.
McGuinty? Harper? Flathery? Duncan? - if you really cared about the future of the leadership in this country get those textbook vendors and post-secondary schools to slash the prices of textbooks. We wouldn’t stand for it elsewhere….why has this been left to fester for so long????
Nuts!
Oh, there’s a blizzard here today - 25c of snow forecast. The Easter Bunny’s frozen.
March 25th, 2008 at 1:18 pm
Voca, in my experience, textbooks at the college and university level are not subsidized and have never been. One of my best friends was a university bookstore manager so I used to get an earful all the time about costs. And, believe it or not, universities get a better price than other sellers.
Each institution’s bookstore operates as a non-profit business — they have to pay salaries, etc — although capital costs and some other costs are paid through the university budget.
The second hand books are usually offered by a private company who goes to the trouble of collecting them, repairing them if they need it and then re-selling them. Has nothing to do with the gov’t.
While some university bookstores will allow the second hand books to be sold on their premises, most don’t like to do it.
As a professor, I used to meet with sales representatives of each of the textbook publishers and decide which textbooks to use. So, that is where the blame should lie — I bent over backwards to use books that were reasonably priced.
March 25th, 2008 at 1:32 pm
Who said anything about subsidizing textbooks? Not I.
The mark-up is obscene, and as textbooks are considered a tool, sometimes not even used by the student, or prof.
Governments should be pressuring the book manufacturers and those who decide price to change their means of operation so as it’s not putting pressure on students who aren’t able to afford to pay the prices. No reasonable adult would pay that kind of mark-up.
As long as any gov’t has jurisdiction over post-secondary they sure do have something to do with this issue. Under Harper at least students get a $500.00 tax credit for that amount at least…but it’s just not good enough.
March 25th, 2008 at 1:44 pm
The global economy is far too big for either Flaherty’s or McGuinty’s solution to have any short term effect on it whatsoever. With the high price of gasoline America’s consumers are not going to start rushing out to buy our locally made SUV’s any time soon, especially as they must watch their wealth evaporate as their homes devalue. The cars and trucks that are assembled in Ontario, are built in plants owned by foreign companies, are designed in foreign lands, use many parts from foreign suppliers, and Canada really has little say in the matter. GM lost 38 Billion dollars last year, so a 4% cut in taxes on the profits that they make from Ontario built cars, or even some very generous corporate welfare, would be about as effective as having the CEO of General Motors stand out front of an auto manufacturing plant selling pencils for extra cash.
Ontario’s problems stem from a lack of innovation that has allowed our productivity to fall too dramatically as our business leaders have grown too complacent while relying on too high immigration levels, and a dollar that was too low in value for too long a time. Necessity is the mother of invention so the best thing to do right now is let the current situation play itself out while trying to set the playing field for improving our long term prospects, and I believe that this is what Flaherty is attempting to do at the moment. However, in picking a fight with McGuinty, Flaherty is ignoring the truth that many of Ontario’s problems are not of it’s own making, since immigration, the value of our dollar and therefore our lack of productivity, are for the most part in federal jurisdiction. Further by concentrating on short term effects to Ontario’s economy, about which he can do little, Flaherty is doing a very poor job of selling his long term vision, while risking a scenario where Ontarians will dig in their heels.
March 25th, 2008 at 2:07 pm
Voca — Re textbooks. Your right. They are very expensive. However, while I am certainly not making excuses for textbook publishers, I have an explanation. I know this business because I have had one of my own published. They are an extremely “limited” production run — which is why if they are hardcover they are so expensive.
The other problem is there is only really one major textbook publisher left in Canada — Pearson — which means that we have to import many of the better ones.
As a former prof I can tell you this is a complicated subject. Sometimes profs have to write their own texbooks to get the appropriate content and to save students money. Other times profs are able to make arrangements to have things photocopied and put into a binder so that students only have to pay for the binder and copyright fees. And, sometimes it is hard to find any applicable book at all. So, options are sometimes few and far between.
Tis the nature of publishing and higher education for such a struggle. I actually wrote one of my own so I could photocopy to my hearts content.
But, this whole discussion came about because of your comment regarding today’s Ontario budget and the high cost of textbooks. You seemed to be making a connection. My apologies if that was not your intention.
March 25th, 2008 at 2:52 pm
For all of the bluster and lip service governments spend on saying they support our students….the truth lies somewhere else entirely.
Whether it be provincial or federal.
I’m sure McGuinty will treat us with the same in an hour.
March 25th, 2008 at 4:31 pm
Did I hear a textbook tax credit for Ontario post-secondary students in today’s budget? Will it be in addition to the federal one or will it cancel it out?