Tuesday, March 01, 2005

Frontier Centre for Public Policy

I agree with this assessment -we are improving but taxes which inhibit market growth should be reduced . PR

Frontier Centre for Public Policy: "What is your verdict on the federal budget? E-mail from Ross F. Smith, Winnipeg.
The 2005 federal budget contained some positive policy tweaks. Raising personal tax exemptions, minor corporate tax reductions and raising RRSP contribution limits will all have positive effects. Eliminating restrictions on foreign pension investments is a smart reform. But the budget is too light on tax reductions, with too much individual relief backloaded five years down the road.
It?s the reverse for spending, most of it into areas of provincial jurisdiction, and in the bloc-funding style, with no incentives for improving policy outcomes. Spending is up by 44% since 2000 and a staggering 12% in this budget. More money into the healthcare monopoly and into unaccountable aboriginal bureaucracies, merely raises inputs with no assurance of increased outputs. Ditto for more equalization, which swells government spending in ?have-not? provinces; it further politicizes those economies in a world where competitive taxes and efficient services are the recipe for success. Federal child care programs and Kyoto-related items like windmill subsidies are emerging as major boondoggles.
That said, the budget is in balance. Canada remains the enviable creator of surpluses, even if that substantial fiscal dividend is often poured into ineffective, wasteful policy models. Had federal spending been held to inflation plus population growth since 2000, Canada could have cut the personal income tax by 30%. With surpluses intact"

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