Re Welfare for the wealthy commentary published Oct. 29.
The author writes that while our population grows, the public sector will be cut by 7.7 per cent. However, even after the cuts, Alberta will still be spending 10 per cent more per capita, than BC’s NDP government, which must mean the NDP government is much worse than Alberta’s.
Alberta does not have a revenue problem; we collect more per capita than any other province. We have a spending problem; we spend more than any other province.
The author says Kenney’s plan to encourage business development with less red tape, and lower taxes won’t work, and that type of plan has never worked.
Harper cut business taxes, and collected more business tax, and lowered unemployment every year, except for the year of the great recession. Businesses. Did. Hire. More. People. According to Statistics Canada, the richest one per cent earned eight per cent of Canada’s income under Mulroney, 11.5 per cent under Chretien, 12.1 per cent under Martin and 10.3 per cent under Harper.
During the same period it increased in the U.S. under Obama from 16.7 to 19.3 per cent. In fact it peaked at 20 per cent before Obama left, tying the previous record set back in the days of U.S. robber barons.
Ralph Klein cut bureaucracy, and even though oil prices declined most years, in his first term Klein cut unemployment from 9.6 per cent to 5.9 per cent.
When Stelmach replaced Klein, oil was at $19.25, it averaged $17.92 in his first term, and was $18.64 in 1997 when he was re-elected.
In December 1998 oil was at $9.80; by Dec 2001 it had climbed to $20.38. In Sept 2001 unemployment fell to 4.1 per cent. Businesses. Did. Hire. More. People.
To put this in perspective, even with low oil and natural gas prices, Klein created jobs, and increased the GDP, at double the Canadian average for that period.
Canada’s GINI index has remained flat since 1976, except for the period where Canada faced bankruptcy because of P.E. Trudeau’s deficit spending, and Chretien had to drastically cut spending, which raised our index by three points.
The moral of the story is, that if you don’t live within your means, your standard of living will go down, when you have to pay for it. Comparing Canada 70 years ago to today is unfair. The world was paying for the Second World War and every country had high taxes, so there was no place for companies or rich people to move to if they felt overtaxed.
Bob Wilson,
Calgary
