Bill 54: Repealing the tax-free allowance

In my last post a commenter known as bill asked me if I thought TJ Burke's tax-free allowance would offset the taxes he payed on property. I replied by saying, "There is no question property taxes would be offset by the gains in exemptions MLA's receive on their monthly per diem. An income stream/benefit regular folks, like us, can't count on at the end of the day."

Well, according to today's Telegraph Journal, it looks like that specific tax exemption benefit will finally come to an end for all MLAs as a bill on pay raises was introduced by government house leader Mike Murphy in the house on Tuesday which "repeals the tax-free allowance (part of their salary) for members of the legislative assembly and rolls that into their taxable salary." Which will now stand at $85,000.

Related: N.B. legislature shut down by threat of rising river, Minister apologizes for 'mafia' comment, Graham's travel allowances costing taxpayers more than $1,000 monthly, Premier Graham's expenses

TJ Burke: New Brunswick Property Taxes Suck!

Feeling NBers [tax] pain or inflicting it on them?

From Say It Like It Is: "Now, generally I don't complain about taxes, but holy cow what a tax burden I am facing this year! I know many other New Brunswickers saying the same thing."

Huh? You mean to say TJ needed to glance at his property tax bill to figure out what all of us NBers have known all along? That being, that we are burdened to death by gouging liberal tax policy.

INCREDIBLE!

Anyway, I know the blogger general to be a very heady guy, in other words, my gut tells me that something else is at play here?

Methinks Jack Mintz will be rolling out his green paper soon (a government sponsored study on tax competitiveness), and judging from the staged sympathetic comment above, you can bet that the Assessment Act will likely be front and center; not to mention, you can bank on the fact that Boudreau et al. will treat the study as if it is already passed legislation, in that, they will take credit as being great advocates of lower taxes without actually doing anything concrete (hoping the public will quickly engulf their rhetoric and forget about their record to date). Let's just say that would be quite a stretch for the only Canadian provincial/federal government to raise taxes in '07.

I think the most logical next step (that this report will ultimately show) will be for Mr. Boudreau to resign, especially since his policies were based on shaky forcasting which cost NB taxpayers a hefty price.

Update

I guess property taxes suck so bad in New Brnswick that it shouldn't even be talked about or mentioned in our neck of the woods...not even by Burke himself?? Huh? Anybody? Bueller?

Friedman Liberty Prize. And the winner is...

From Cato.org:

Yon Goicoechea, leader of the pro-democracy student movement in Venezuela, has been awarded the 2008 Milton Friedman Prize for Advancing Liberty. Under Goicoechea's leadership, the student movement organized mass opposition to the erosion of human and civil rights in Venezuela and played the key role in defeating Hugo Chávez's bid for a constitutional reform that would have turned the country into a dictatorship. Goicoechea's vision of optimism, tolerance, and modernity has breathed new life into efforts to defend basic freedoms in Venezuela and elsewhere in Latin America where freedom is threatened. Full details.

Congratulations Yon!!

Update: Friedman committee member arrested in raid

From Tom Palmer:

Andrew Mwenda (see above) has been arrested, along with his colleagues Odobo Bichachi and John Njoroge, in a raid by the Ugandan government on the magazine Independence. Andrew is a member of the 2008 International Selection Committee for the Milton Friedman Prize for Advancing Liberty, which just announced on Thursday the award of the prize to Venezuelan student Yon Goicoechea.

Write to the Ugandan government to insist on freedom of the press and freedom for Andrew Mwenda, Odobo Bichachi, and John Njoroge, (The Ugandan Embassy can be contacted by mail, email, fax or phone: details here. Please be respectful, but direct, clear, and forceful.)

Cutting corporate taxes not a political issue

Ontario (Canada's Taxachusetts) a notable holdout on tax cuts

Canadian Finance Minister Jim Flaherty was in Manhattan, New York yesterday to specifically outline Canada's fiscal achievements as well as to promote his country as a sound place to invest and do business globally. And to nobody's surprise, in his speech, [he] reiterated his position on corporate taxes saying, "lower corporate taxes isn't a political issue, noting that Manitoba's NDP government and Frank McKenna, New Brunswick's former Liberal premier, have come out in support of them."

Mary Anastasia O'Grady, a Wall Street Journal columnist and editorial board member, said it best in Political Diary (a daily political e-mail) about the importance of business tax cuts to a country (or region's) overall economic development and competitiveness:

Canadian Finance Minister Jim Flaherty was in New York yesterday to give a speech touting the economic achievements of the relatively new government of Prime Minister Stephen Harper. He stopped by the Journal offices to give a preview. Since coming to office two years ago, Mr. Flaherty told us, the Harper government has succeeded in steadily whacking down the corporate income tax to 18% from 22%, and is headed for 15% by 2012. Aiming for a total tax burden or no more than 25%, Ottawa has also been pushing the provinces to cut their own taxes on business profits. Ontario (Canada's Taxachusetts) has been a notable holdout and some in the Canadian press even accused Mr. Flaherty yesterday of leaving Ontario out of his sales pitch to U.S. investors. Mr. Flaherty joked in return that he was "gently prodding [Provincial] Premier [Dalton] McGuinty in my own subtle way to reduce business taxes."

Canada's cuts come none too soon. Business tax-cutting has been a global phenomenon, with the OECD countries now averaging less than 27%, down from 38% in 1993 (the U.S. average is 40%). It's also of a piece with the Harper government's broader pro-growth agenda, which includes free trade deals with Colombia, Peru and South Korea and work to speed up transit of goods at the Windsor-Detroit border crossing.

I can only hope that Premier Graham doesn't turn our fiscal well-being into a political football like McGuinty has, especially with a possible recession looming around the corner. Let's just say, yours truly will be eagerly awaiting the recommendations put forward from the much lauded Green report [Mintz report] on tax competitiveness which is scheduled to be released either at the end of the month or early May.

Related: Flaherty sees a silver economic lining, Slow Growth Won't Cause Canada Deficit, Canadian economy resilient, no budget gap, Currency Markets Ignored G-7 Statement, Flaherty to Tighten Regulation of Canadian Banks, Flaherty pulling for ABCP plan

Governments have failed to streamline their costs

Canadian welfare state adds 175,000 new hires in five years

Well, it looks like Donald Savoie is back in the news, and for all the right reasons. Last week, in an opinion article published in the Business Edge by D'arcy Jenish, Savoie once again proudly touted his new anti-statist views, in that, he believes that the state has unequivocally failed, unlike the current private sector, in their use of new technologies and innovative strategies so as to curb their already Brobdingnagian operational costs.

Savoie's concerns are real, especially since the numbers coming out of Statistics Canada clearly indicate an augmenting trend:

"the country's public sector, which includes, among others, federal, provincial and territorial governments, municipalities, schools, colleges, universities and hospitals, employed nearly 3.3 million people at the end of 2007. That's just over 10 per cent of the population and an increase of 175,000 in five years.

The feds and the provinces combined accounted for a little over 33,000 of the new hires. The health and social services sectors grew by a whopping 48,517. Local school boards were up by 43,208, universities and colleges by 28,152 and municipalities by 27,519."

Furthermore, Savoie believes that the problem lies in the fact that governments have an extremely poor track record of keeping bad public policy on the books:

"The public sector has proven over the years that it is good at launching new programs and services. [...] It is not good at stopping them. Things just keep going even if they are not as useful as they originally were. It would be a stretch to say that this is good [government] management."

Plus, as I've always said, "the business of government should not be the government of business." If these startling numbers say anything to us, it's that we need to start thinking long and hard about reducing the size of government both provincially and federally.

The money belongs solely to taxpayers, so...

...we have a right to know where it was spent, who it was spent on and why it was dolled out? (i.e details of the agreement) Period.

Which is why I mirror what Canadian Taxpayers Federation Director John Williamson said about the $21.4 million pension plan bailout:

"trying to use the law to deflect questions and deny taxpayers have a right to know how this money's being spent.[...] The government's defence is "completely outrageous" because it could have dictated the terms of the deal, or change the law. [...] When governments offer up that kind of money to a private entity or any group, they could easily demand full disclosure be given to taxpayers as a condition of receiving that money. That it didn't do so speaks volumes about the appropriateness of this financial transfer. [...] If New Brunswick taxpayers are going to be on the hook to top up pension funds they have a right to know the details of the agreement."

Moreover, it would seem the spring thaw the pension plan issue has brought one New Brunswick PC MLA out of longtime hibernation (source Telegraph Journal): "Conservative Kirk MacDonald demanded more information on the issue, and called for an overhaul of the Pension Benefits Act - so taxpayers can see the bail out details."

McKennomics: lower personal & corporate taxes...

...but hike consumptions taxes (i.e. the HST and GST).


















Related: Frankly, McKenna got it right, N.B. tax cuts required now, Apres Dion, Le Deluge, McKenna calls for Atlantic reduction in corporate, capital taxes, Education, small business best places to invest, McKenna desperate for region to work together

Rich should shoulder the tax burden says NB pundit

I was reminded, after reading this post, how quickly people jump to the conclusion that the rich (approx. the top 5 per cent) aren't shouldering their fair share of the tax burden. According to Ezra, the same Gibsonian argument is being made by Obama and Clinton:

Howard Gleckman points out that while Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton aren't as egregiously out-of-touch as Charlie Gibson, they're pandering to the Gibsonian line on taxes, refusing to consider increases for families making less than $200,000 a year, and hamstringing themselves on needed revenue. This gets to a generalized problem in Democratic tax talk, which is that they're very unwilling to talk about taxes in terms of value. There are lots of government services which are actually a good deal for middle income families and should be sold as something that Americans would be wise to invest in. But rather than making a positive case around awesome stuff we're going to get, Democrats talk about taxes in complete isolation from the things that taxes buy, and begin with the premise that they're so odious and painful that they should only be levied on folks too rich to notice. It's not exactly the strongest argumentative ground.

Tandem Temporary Textiles: Not a winner

Tandem Textiles receives $2.43 million in corporate welfare

Instead of giving my readers the usual earful about how damaging corporate welfare deals are to our provincial treasury, economy and future prosperity, I thought I would list the three steps of corporate welfare (as they pertain to the local textile industry) using my favorite subsidy sinkhole, Atlantic Fine Yarns, as the model case for return on investment of our tax dollars allocated by Business New Brunswick:

Step 1: Corporate welfare formula is announced in a government friendly photo op to an obvious declining industry: "Byrne announced that the Government of New Brunswick will provide Tandem Textiles with a $1.43-million forgivable loan and a $1-million term loan to assist with capital costs and facility upgrades, and the expenditures required to upgrade environmental and water recycling equipment."

Step 2: Market dictates otherwise and the end result [again] is that bureaucrats and politicians are terrible at picking winners or knowing business (better at picking losers): "Two textile companies in northern New Brunswick have filed for protection from their creditors and are one step closer to bankruptcy. Representatives from sister companies Atlantic Yarns and Atlantic Fine Yarns and a trustee met with the company's union Monday to talk about the future. About 365 employees work at the two textile mills in Atholville and Pokemouche." (Oh btw, they have cost NB taxpayers well over $41,583,800 in loans, interest and loan guarantees. The reason I reference "well over" is because corporate welfare not only creates an unfair business environment, it diverts capital from successful companies/firms, who don't receive government assistance, to their subsidized competitors via high small biz taxes & corporate taxes. So these loans indirectly punish other companies as well)

Step 3: Costly legal ramifications ensue when discussions and negotiations take precedent (between the debtor and their creditors) over the avoidance of bankruptsy (plan of arrangement): "The Monitor has prepared and filed with the Court a report on the Creditor meetings, which report is the fifth report of the Monitor set out below under Reports of the Monitor. At the Unsecured Creditor Meeting held on April 2, 2008, the unsecured creditors approved the plan as amended. The creditors were well represented and the plan has overwhelming support of the creditors. A copy of the minutes is attached under Court Documents. At the Secured Creditor Meeting held on April 2, 2008 the secured creditors approved the plan as amended. A copy of the minutes is attached under Court Documents. At the April 11, 2008 Court hearing by agreement between the parties the matter was adjourned until May 27, 2008. A copy of the Court Order is enclosed below under Court Orders. At this date, the Order from the April 1, 2008 hearing has not been received from the Court and will be posted when received. The Government of Canada has not yet passed or proclaimed the legislation related to the Outward Processing Initiative, which is still pending. The plant will remain closed for the next few weeks until this is proclaimed. The Companies continue to work with their secured creditors to finalize the terms and conditions of future involvement. GE remains the only secured creditor in opposition to the Plan. The Companies continue to seek additional financial resources for the Companies for working capital purposes." (See also here, here and here)

So file me under "skeptical" for this most recent corporate welfare arrangement between Business New Brunswick and Tandem Textiles. just me. H/T: Gypsy Blog.

Related posts -- a growing list of offenses by the Graham government

Guest commentary on Prudential deal (Prudential consulting)
Royal Oaks gets $5 million government mulligan (Royal Oaks Estates and Golf Club)
Is ACOA damaging to our local business climate? (ACOA subsidies)
End Corporate welfare now (Atcon Group Inc.)
Should taxpayers be funding known polluters? (AV Cell Inc.)
When in doubt? Give out a forgivable loan (Prudential consulting)
Corporate welfare not the answer (AV Cell Inc.)
I can't drive 55 (Roger Duguay on grants & loans)
Corporate welfare on the march once again (Atcon Group Inc.)
Spinning Yarn of Corporate Welfare (Atlantic Yarns)
Atlantic Yarns: Bottomless subsidy pit (Atlantic Yarns)
Atlantic Yarns: bottomless-pit filing for bankruptcy? (Atlantic Yarns)
The business of gov't is not the government of business
A culture of dependency (Rogers Communications Inc.)
My New Business Plan (The Mactaquac marina)
Business Pork (Cape Jourimain Nature Centre Inc.)
Statist Guile (Premier's pledge to stop use of grants & loans)
Put An End to Wasteful Subsidies (Atlantic Beef Products Inc.)

Nova Scotia air travelers: Beware of high taxes!

Something has got to be done with the high taxation levels for air travelers in Nova Scotia, especially since this mode of transportation is a vital part of the weekly business routine of business consultants, entrepreneurs and CEOs crucial to the economy. Just how bad is it?

Check out how much tax Chronicle Herald columnist Peter Duffy paid for a flight to his hometown of Manchester, England:

Frankly, the price of the ticket came as a bit of a shock: $1,089. When I groused about it to my travel agent, she pointed out that a good percentage of the price isn’t even for the flight; it’s for taxes.

I asked her how much. She listed them for me: HST, airport tax, security tax, fuel surcharge, departure fees — on and on — for a staggering total of $429!

Almost 40 per cent in fees and taxes. Ouch! Made me wish I hadn’t asked.

That is just unacceptable. Think of it this way, on the same flight to Manchester, if you reduced the taxes and fees by fifty per cent, it would save travellers $1,073 on five flights. That's real cash folks.

Almost exactly what they are charging for the "high taxed" flight.

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On a more positive note, it would appear one of the Atlantic provinces is finally heading in the right direction with lower taxes, not to mention, the possibility of getting off the Ottawa dole.

Tao of Steve[s]

Kinsella hits the nail on the head on where the two federal leaders sit, and where their weak constituencies lie. Plus, it's not something that will resolve itself before the fixed 2009 general election (according to Warren). In other words, for these two uncharismatic souls, it's time to stop throwing ground and start gaining ground before it's too late.

Guest commentary on NB Power & Prudential deal

I found this commentary by an individual, who would like to remain anonymous, very interesting (not to mention, I couldn't agree more):

On NB Power's 3 per cent raise proposal & Orimulsion

Our "best of breed management" as described by one of our local governement executive in a recent local daily newspaper in justifying their 3 percent salary increase, have orchestrated a $10 billion bad judgement debt over the Venezuela financial scandal to our tax payers. Adding insult to injury, this management team also managed to either keep their jobs or receive a big retirement buyout for their good service.

Where else but in government could one pull such a scandal and not get fired or worst?

And to add icing on the cake; Why not divert and justify the ever increasing Power rates by blaming it on the gas price hikes.

We the people of New Brunswick are not the one to blame for this. But we should be ashame for allowing these sort of scandals to continue without accountability....etc.

On the Prudential Consulting deal with the government

This one also gets me reeling. In Febuary of this year Prudential received $1 million funding from ACOA to train medical transcriptionists and provide transcription services to the medical community across the country. This is a private company who just recently toured our NB and NS hospitals and was unsuccessfull in hiring but a handfull if any transcriptionists on their own token.

And only sixty+ days later, they sold Shaun Graham the very same bag of beans for another +$800,000.00 to setup shop in Saint-John and hire an additional 150 more transcriptionists. Do one actualy beleive they will be hiring that many transcriptionists? It's not a simple coincidence that 350 is the current number of transcriptionists working in our NB & NS healthcare institutions.

And if there is such a demand for medical transcriptionists today, why isn't this money offered to our own provincialy funded Community Colleges in Campbellton & Cape-Breton who currently offer this training but have been struggling to make due.

I placing my bets that Prudential hidden true intentions is to hire our very own provincial healthcare transcriptionists (who coincidently adds up to the promise numbers Prudential promised to hire).

To summarize, we taxpayers pay a private company $1.8 million to hand over our own professionaly trained & experience transcriptionists, who will then in turn charge us a premium fee for their services. And within a few short years later, Prudential will likely hand them back to our Provincial unemployment agencies, as their services will no longer be required and replaced by lower paid transcriptionists based in India).

But worst is; Prudential end up having access to much of our confidential medical record information & history. Unlike having your cedit card replaced in the event that it ever gets lost or stolen, one cannot change or replace his/hers medical history.

What's the big deal?
Here some a few scenarios to think about:

The US Patiotic Act
Your medical insurance rates
Prescription costs...etc.

Is the breakdown of marriage costing taxpayers?

A study (the first of its kind) by Georgia State University economist Ben Scafidi makes that very claim:

Divorce and out-of-wedlock childbearing costs U.S. taxpayers more than $112 billion a year, according to a study commissioned by four groups advocating more government action to bolster marriages.

Sponsors say the study is the first of its kind and hope it will prompt lawmakers to invest more money in programs aimed at strengthening marriages.

More from Tuns: "The authors claim their estimates are low, although the $112 billion number seems a huge number at first glance although in the larger scheme of things -- total government spending or the size of the US economy, it isn't. The takeaway point is that this report quantifies the economic ramifications of the disintegration of family life. The best social program is not, as many conservatives like to say 'a job' but stable families. If libertarians are interested in keeping the cost of government in check, they might want to reconsider the cultural influences on family breakdown (divorce, the contraception mentality, etc...) which they generally support.

An executive summary of the report Taxpayer Costs of Divorce and Unwed Childbearing can be found here. A fact sheet is available here. The press release announcing the release of the report today here. See AP's coverage here."

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At first glance, you may think that pumping more taxpayer dollars into pro-family programs is the solution, like Tuns is suggesting, however, it's not. It is much more complicated then that. Although, some may say that it isn't.

Anyway, yours truly would love a world where everyone is happily married and contributing to the economy, but let's face it, that world (though utopian) doesn't exist anymore. And to think that policy makers believe that forcing people (against their own will and choice), through government programs, to remain in a failing marriage will somehow be more beneficial to society is absurd to say the least.

What needs to change is the way we educate our youth and the values we instill in our communities. This can only be accomplished through personal responsibility, not by government coercion or bureaucratic pilot projects. Let's remember, a happy taxpayer is a good taxpayer.

Donald Savoie a Thatcherite?

Axe salaries at Business New Brunswick says Savoie

I like Donald Savoie just as much as the next Liberal who drinks the local red kool aid as he's a stand up guy. And even though I don't always agree with his views on economic development, there has been some well intentioned stuff in his public policy writings over the years (all of which I have read btw).


However, after reading the Telegraph Journal article today titled Shake up tradition, I am left wondering three things: 1.) Has the award winning Moncton academic, who gave birth to ACOA and made regional development policies sexy in New Brunswick, lost his mind? 2.) Is he getting back at Premier Graham for tinkering with early french immersion? (check out the direct hits to the self-sufficiency policy in his commentary) or 3.) Is he truly moving to the right (towards classical liberalism) in his thinking on economic development and away from his regionally popular and left leaning statist views?

Yours truly is definitely a little skeptical, but hopes it's the latter.

Update

Considering the fact that the monitoring of water quality is being well managed in my town by a private company in Moncton (it used to be government), it sure makes this statement in today's Telegraph Journal by Tom Mann appear to be a bit of a left-wing stretch:

Slashing staff in the civil service is a "20-year-old solution that didn't work," Mann said, noting we already tried to "pull a Thatcher" here in the early 1990s, when several thousand jobs in the sector were cut.

Doing so led to adverse effects on quality of life in the province, he noted, pointing to "fewer people dedicated to inspection of restaurants, fewer people testing the water we drink, fewer people investigating the safety quality of our highways."

For starters, in this day and age, it's the reverse. Finding private sector solutions for health care, roads and monitoring water quality while reducing the size of the public sector is a win-win for both consumers and taxpayers. Plus, New Brunswick has always had one of the largest bureaucracies of any Canadian province. Not sure what small government Mann is referring to in the 90s? It wasn't McKenna's.

Women continue to shy away from politics in NB

Gender balance not even close to fifty per cent













These numbers have to be very discouraging for females [in NB] hoping to take the leap into municipal politics in the future. Only 25 per cent have filed their nomination papers to run in the up-and-coming municipal elections next month while an even smaller amount, 20 per cent, are putting their name forward for mayor.

This despite the efforts from such groups as Canadian Women Voters Congress, Equal Voice and New Brunswick Advisory Council on the Status of Women who all advocate more gender balance in politics.

This negative trend never ceases to amaze me. Any thoughts?

Royal Oaks gets $5 million government mulligan

There's wasteful government spending folks, and then there is this:

"The Liberal government has decided to erase nearly $5 million in debt from the books of a Moncton golf club - in exchange for a cut of the club's profits.

The move, approved last November but revealed in freshly released government documents, has critics howling.

The Royal Oaks Estates & Golf Club currently owes the province about $4.8 million, stemming from a loan guarantee issued in 1998.

The Liberals have decided to convert that debt into preferred shares in the company, meaning the province has a stake in any profits.

The government will now receive 50 per cent of the club's net profits - until the debt is paid back.

The club's general manager says the debt reduction will allow Royal Oaks to expand its facilities.

In fact, that expansion will require the club - which includes an 18-hole golf course and condominiums - to borrow more money.

Critics say the whole situation is a waste of government dollars.

John Williamson, of the Canadian Taxpayers Federation, says a province with over-crowded classrooms and rising health-care costs should not be fronting money for a golf course.

"That's hardly an activity that is in need of government support," he said. "It's about as frivolous as it gets in terms of spending."

Not sure if using taxpayers hard-earned money to wipe out the debt. of a private golf club will be part of the Liberal tax competitive [Green report] strategy at the end of the month? just sayin'.

Anyway, I can see why Greg Byrne was unavailable for comment.

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Speaking of corporate welfare for companies that don't need it...

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Not only was this an extremely poor business decision by Minister Byrne (on the taxpayer's dime), on the periphery it appears this corporate welfare deal was allegedly struck due to friends, or should I say family connections, with the Royal Oaks golf club to the governing Liberals. Thanks to Rob (The Independent) for the link tip.

Free from government intervention

I agree with Iain G. Foulds on the spending problems of the federal finance department during the ’70s :

... True liberty is freedom from government economic intervention, "investment", and re-distribution.

... We have only ourselves to blame for allowing our government to slide down this slippery slope- a role without objective boundaries or restraints.

... We will only turn the tide by defining and teaching the values of liberty.

Liberal's four steps to reverse prosperity

Lots of money for friends, no money for taxpayers

If you're wondering what the current New Brunswick Liberal government's four step formula is for NBers, keep reading:

First, raise taxes on corporations and individuals (and eliminate tax rebates), thus limiting private sector growth. Secondly, expand government even more. Thirdly, when jobs are being lost in the private sector at alarming rates and NBers are being taxed to death, offer yourself a possible pay raise. And if that isn't enough, inflate government wages (well above market value) for your executive friends (appointees) in the public sector while gouging ordinary ratepayers. Sigh.

And you wonder why I'm sick of this self-sufficiency plan.

Update - When it doubt? Give out a forgivable loan

Prudential Consulting Inc. is getting "a corporate welfare forgivable loan of $540,000 for the 50 jobs created" and "$260,000 for the 100 medical transcription jobs created." And guess who's on the hook?

Does bilingualism create a more tolerant society?

The short answer: NO. Why do I say that? Just look at our only bilingual city, Moncton, and the number of people who classify themselves as a visible minority*. A measly two per cent. Well below other immigrant friendly metropolitan areas in Canada, not to mention, the lowest amongst the "big three" major urban centers in New Brunswick. A coincidence? I think not. As a NBer that has lived many years in two of the largest urban centers in Ontario, these numbers are reflective of what is truly happening on the ground in New Brunswick, both in policy and with people. Dualistic policies which have left our society both intolerant and in decline.

* Source: Statistics Canada

It all comes down to talent, technology and tolerance

Anyway, if you're tired of the crusty [three century old] french/english debate that has been (and still is) raging on in New Brunswick, then here's a piece I wrote on the subject of immigration some time ago:

I agree with Justin Trudeau, there no question we need to push past our “thirty year old” dualistic approach wherein we move to a more multicultural, tolerant model. Our resources are scarce in this province and investing too much in old failed policies has left our province [and region] in the global dust.

It is common knowledge that in the next five years, immigration will account for 100% of net labour force growth in Canada. And furthermore, province’s that have a larger number of people born within, for example the province of Newfoundland, tend to have weaker economies as opposed to those stronger ecomomies who rely more heavily on an outside influx of immigrants. [i.e. Toronto, Calgary, and Ottawa]

So there is no question that New Brunswick, whose french and english populations are dwindling [death rates outnumber their bithrates] need to change the way they view themselves and their society so that our region can become a more fertile place for immigrants to live, work and pay taxes. In other words, old dualistic policy approaches which maintain the status quo and [keep our society insular] are no longer viable in a global economy anchored by a knowledged based economy [KBE]. We must find a way to convince the people and the powers that be that we need a policy overhaul in order to move ahead in a global society. In other words, we must follow the “3 Ts” recommended by economist Tom Corchene whereby he said:

"The regions who come out on top will be those who fare best in terms of Technolgy (as measured by innovation and high-tech industry concentration), Talent (as measured by the number of people in creative occupations) and Tolerance (as measured by the amenities afforded and opportunities available for every possible lifestyle). Cities and regions that score well, especially with respect to the tolerance index, will become places where the creative class will cluster."

I can't stess this more. And it is a huge reason why I support [Corchene's] notion, in that, I believe we are wasting our time with old policies that have left our society insular and in decline. In other words, we will either ride the momentum of the global wave or sit idly by and watch it crash over our heads. We have a choice.

For the record, I have nothing against learning another language. I am bilingual myself. However, when the focus (of policy) leaves your society with entrenched insular attitudes and stunted social and economic progress, isn't it time you questioned that policy to its core?

In other news, I see the CBC is as hypocritical as ever - in the Ottawa area, at least. Not that it is a scientific study per se, but I would have put Victor Boudreau's green report (tax competitiveness) on this list.