Open Letter to Canadians
June 16, 2021
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Red Deer – Mountain View, AB
Budget 2021 Highlight: Helping Canadians Get Back to Work
Issues: Until provincial health restrictions are permanently revoked, businesses across Canada will be reluctant to hire more workers. Additionally, federal border measures have severely limited the travel and tourism industry and will continue to cause uncertainty until permanently revoked.
Solutions: Canadians will get back to work as soon as governments end health restrictions. Additionally, programs directed to workers impacted by health measures need to be phased out. It is not the job of provincial and federal governments to provide livelihoods for Canadians. It is the job of government to create the environment where workers can freely enter the workforce and provide for themselves.
Budget 2021 Highlight: Helping Small and Medium-sized Businesses Recover and Grow
Issues: Broad plans to fund businesses and help them move into new and emerging sectors such as aerospace, technology and others is not the responsibility of the federal government. Tax credits and subsidies typically result in wasteful spending and support businesses that the free market would otherwise allow to fail due to inefficiencies.
Solutions: Rather than focus on “pet” projects, the federal government should remove itself from being an active player in the market. A focus on broad tax reform and deregulation would ultimately benefit the largest number of Canadians. Tax reform should be focused on ending the complexity within the Income Tax Act. A system built on a consumption tax or flat tax would end the war on savings and encourage investment, innovation and create wealth for more Canadians. Canada is one of the most challenging countries in the world in which to obtain national building permits. Deregulation would lead to significant infrastructure project starts within the private sector. This would lead to new jobs and personal autonomy, something that all regions of this country are desperately needing in 2021.
Budget 2021 Highlight: Investing in Canada’s Entrepreneurs
Issues: Are government programs specifically directed to segments of the Canadian population based on race, gender or other characteristic ethical? Do these programs meet their intended goal of further diversity in the marketplace or do they serve to create further division?
Solutions: If Canadians are having difficulties obtaining business financing based on their race, gender or other characteristic, this should be resolved through the legal system. All Canadians should be treated equally and have the ability to succeed based on merit. Rather than government directing tax dollars to specific groups of Canadians, government should leave more money in the hands of all Canadians. This will position entrepreneurs to best leverage their ideas and have more initial capital with which to start a business. All Canadians should be afforded the equality of opportunity, not the equality of outcome.
Budget 2021 Highlight: Making it Easier to do Business in Canada
Issues: Interprovincial trade barriers cost Canadians in excess of $100 billion per year.
Solutions: The Canadian Free Trade Agreement (CFTA) needs to be reviewed and replaced immediately. Carve outs and exemptions within the agreement benefit a select group of businesses to the determent of Canadians in general. Additionally, and likely more importantly, the federal-provincial government transfer system needs to be revoked. This system allows provinces to fall back on federal transfers, consisting of tax revenues from other provinces. The transfer system provides no incentive for competition among provinces and has served to create significant regional tensions. Increased competition would benefit all Canadians via increased jobs, lower cost goods and services and the ability to succeed.
Budget 2021 Highlight: Building Infrastructure to Boost Trade
Issues: Infrastructure projects in recent months have been largely focused in the provinces of Ontario and Quebec. Is it fair for Canadians in other provinces to be contributing to these projects when they receive no direct benefit? Do “investments” in recreation, community centres and other social infrastructure projects promote trade?
Solutions: Social infrastructure projects are not infrastructure projects. They are vote buying schemes. Instead of the federal government collecting tax revenues and then transferring these funds back to provinces and ultimately municipalities, local tax revenues should be used to fund local projects. This will ensure that projects are completed efficiently, budgets are respected and the federal government can’t use tax revenues from one part of the country to buy votes in another part.
Budget 2021 Highlight: Investing in World-leading Research and Innovation
Issues: Do Canadians see return on the numerous different programs and “investments” that the federal government makes in the technology, science or innovation? Are these programs more suited to benefit connected insiders over Canadians in general? Do these programs promote companies that the private sector would otherwise let fall by the wayside?
Solutions: Select funding leads to corruption, inefficiencies and waste. Rather than looking for a home run, the federal government should instead focus on reducing regulation and streamlining the Income Tax Act. This type of reform benefits the highest number of Canadians and tells the word that Canada is open for business.
Budget 2021 Highlight: Supporting a Digital Economy
Issues: Will increased government intervention in the telecommunications sector, specifically in relation to providing broadband coverage across the country, result in good outcomes for Canadians? Would it be more beneficial to remove restrictions and disband the Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications (CRTC) to allow for free competition within the market?
Solutions: Canadians pay some of the highest telecommunications costs in the developed world. While our large geographic region and relatively sparse population are factors, the bigger issue is the regulations set out by the CRTC and other Canadian regulators. Competition has been significantly limited within Canada with only a select couple of oligopolies having access to Canadian consumers. Limited competition harms consumers and could be reversed by allowing companies such as Starlink easier access to the Canadian marketplace.
Sincerely,
Jared Pilon
Libertarian Party Candidate for Red Deer – Mountain View, AB
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