Ontario Infrastructure Minister Brad Duguid must have missed the class on publicity that said change the story line when you make the same announcement for the third time. He got a roasting from the media the other day who had heard it all before. He was trying to make more news out of the sale of the Liquor Control Board’s Queens Quay property in downtown Toronto. He was certainly not the first Liberal minister to try to make something of that story. And the opposition politicians might have a point when they call it ‘smoke and mirrors.’
To sell the land without the LCBO included is, in fact, gross stupidity.
Duguid left out an important figure. He talked about the maybe $200 million that the province would get for the property. What he failed to talk about was what it would cost to move the board’s headquarters, distribution centre and main Toronto store to other locations. The citizens of Ontario could easily end up with a net loss in the transaction. The media should have been asking ‘What is this dumbass idea going to cost us?’
What ever happened to the advice from the farmers of old: If you sell your land, you are nothing but a serf.
If the Ontario government is desperate for money, selling the LCBO itself makes far better sense. It is a sale that pays dividends. It makes more money forever for the province. It will pay more in taxes than the LCBO ever earned. It creates jobs. It offers opportunities for entrepreneurs. It pleases the public. It means that beer and wine and spirits can be sold with food—as they should be. Beer can be available in convenience stores instead of through disgusting beer stores where the profits go to foreign owners.
But, pardon us if we have discussed this before. It simply shows how dumb the Ontario politicians can be. They have been told countless times now that they are losing money and the citizens are losing patience with an outmoded and archaic system of wine and spirits distribution in Ontario. It spells ignorance and inability to really meet the needs of Ontario citizens—and God help us, we just recently decided that they were the best of a bunch of losers.
And poor Minister Duguid still does not know dumb he looks. He was two-for-two last week. His first fumble was complaining about the federal government and the Rouge National Urban Park. He expects the Harper government to do something to protect the environment of the park—in his dreams!
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Copyright 2014 © Peter Lowry
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