Big Business the big winner in debate
Re Leaders fail to shine in snoozefest of a debate, June 4 The Ontario leaders debate highlighted the perennial winner in all debates — Big Business. All three leaders bent over backwards to woo the corporate mandarins large and small in the vain hope that they will create jobs. But none promised any accountability for those businesses if they failed to do what they say. This is what led to billions being wasted on eHealth, ORNGE and gas plants. All three leaders enticed them with tax cuts, tax credits and public-private partnerships that have already been tried and have failed to stimulate the economy even with interest rates at near zero — a clear indication of how bad the global recession still is. Only the NDP offered to link tax cuts to job creation but even they will not require ironclad guarantees of this result from corporations. Tim Hudak’s blanket corporate tax cuts — free money for all businesses — make no sense financially. For a fiscal conservative, his shotgun approach is misguided and wasteful. Kathleen Wynne’s balanced approach shares similar fatal flaws. None of them provided any guarantee their plan would bring businesses to Ontario. Voters were offered three Hail Mary passes. The problem is that Ontario’s economy is completely dependent on what happens globally and none of the leaders’ proposals will amount to a hill of beans in this context. Since regions all over the world are competing for the same jobs with the same strategies, small, incremental benefits are unlikely to attract new business to the province. Once other regions match our tax cuts the whole process starts over again.
What happens when corporate taxes get to zero? What will happen is more of hardworking people’s money will be squandered on large corporations who don’t need it and small businesses while unemployment, low wages and unskilled work will continue to be the norm.
Governments would be better served to take a Keynesian approach and invest in infrastructure spending while letting the private sector create whatever jobs they will and do what it will do anyway — with or without corporate welfare. At least Ontarians’ tax dollars are being reinvested in their own province and creating jobs in the process.
The tax rate a company pays should be directly related to the number of jobs they generate. This rewards job creators and encourages jobs to stay in Ontario. Robert Bahlieda, Newmarket