Ontario Finance Minister Charles Sousa might not have been born a banker. He probably decided on that profession when the other kids picked on him in the school yard. He determined to get even. In a strange new ritual called the Fall Economic Statement, Charles sounded like he still had it in for the school yard bullies.
The economic report he made to the legislature was really nothing more than school boy bragging. He sure is going to get even with those tax cheats. He brags that he is going to nail tax cheats for some $700 million over the next four years. If he really thinks he will get that money, he is kidding us and himself.
The best way to get rid of tax cheats is to make it less worthwhile to cheat. The most expensive way is to arrest the cheats and to send them to prison. That costs far more than the amount of tax they have scammed. And if you think you only have to incarcerate a few “pour encourager les autres,” you have no idea how many different types of scams that are possible.
And with Ontario’s remodelling business built so shakily on tax dodges, he will be needlessly throwing people out of work if he clamps down on those tax loopholes. He would be far better off to add some taxes in that sector on equipment and materials. The province can allow the legitimate remodelling contractor to claim back the tax when he pays in the customers’ taxes on a related contract.
The really bad news in this school-yard dialogue was what Sousa said in regards to the foolish suggestions of TD Bank’s Ed Clark and his panel of has-been politicos. To take a one-time gain from selling hydro-electric distribution to people who will rip off the consumers is pathetic. To have the LCBO try to meet the local needs of ethnic groups is an exercise in the ridiculous.
But it was the plan to squeeze the Beer Store monopoly that indicated how really childish Sousa was in his economic statement. Instead of ending the idiocy of having a foreign-owned monopoly with their disgusting beer stores, Sousa gave up millions in potential revenues from better distribution of beer sales.
Frankly, it is becoming an embarrassment to admit that Charles Sousa and the Wynne government are supposed to be Liberals. We used to refer to them as Whigs which were an earlier version of Liberals. What they really are is Conservatives by another name.
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Copyright 2014 © Peter Lowry
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