Indeed, a 25-page report, “Time For A Vision Of Ontario’s Economy,” by then TD Bank chief economist Don Drummond was critical to McGuinty’s change of heart.
Released on Sept. 29, 2008, the sobering study took a longer term view of Ontario’s economic prospects beyond the usual cyclical ups and downs and concluded trends were heading in a scary direction.
It predicted an end to the days of relying upon an undervalued Canadian dollar, low-cost energy and free access to the U.S. to keep Ontario manufacturers competitive enough to propel the economy. Without radical restructuring, the province risked being left behind by emerging Asian powerhouses and by 2020 could be in serious trouble.
Along with the HST, the general corporate income-tax rate will, as of Thursday, begin falling to 10 per cent from 14 per cent over the next three years with the manufacturers’ rate dropping to 10 per cent from 12 per cent.
Corporate taxes on small business are being cut to 4.5 per cent from 5.5 per cent and the small-business deduction surtax is being eliminated and business capital taxes, which had been scrapped for manufacturers and mining companies in 2007, will be gone as of Thursday.
Against the backdrop of a worldwide financial catastrophe and with Ontario’s manufacturing-dependent economy lassoed to the sputtering U.S., swift action was needed.
“When you lose 250,000 jobs in short order, you sober up very quickly and your choices become much more stark and you recognize that you’re going to have to make some difficult decisions in order to strengthen this economy,” the Premier says.
Nor were there enough credible, independent studies endorsing the tax for the liking of skittish Liberal MPPs. It took until November for the most important of these to be released when the University of Calgary’s Jack Mintz concluded the reduction in capital costs to business will help create 591,000 new jobs over the next decade — 103,000 in manufacturing alone.
http://www.thestar.com/news/ontario/hst/article/830336
Released on Sept. 29, 2008, the sobering study took a longer term view of Ontario’s economic prospects beyond the usual cyclical ups and downs and concluded trends were heading in a scary direction.
It predicted an end to the days of relying upon an undervalued Canadian dollar, low-cost energy and free access to the U.S. to keep Ontario manufacturers competitive enough to propel the economy. Without radical restructuring, the province risked being left behind by emerging Asian powerhouses and by 2020 could be in serious trouble.
Along with the HST, the general corporate income-tax rate will, as of Thursday, begin falling to 10 per cent from 14 per cent over the next three years with the manufacturers’ rate dropping to 10 per cent from 12 per cent.
Corporate taxes on small business are being cut to 4.5 per cent from 5.5 per cent and the small-business deduction surtax is being eliminated and business capital taxes, which had been scrapped for manufacturers and mining companies in 2007, will be gone as of Thursday.
Against the backdrop of a worldwide financial catastrophe and with Ontario’s manufacturing-dependent economy lassoed to the sputtering U.S., swift action was needed.
“When you lose 250,000 jobs in short order, you sober up very quickly and your choices become much more stark and you recognize that you’re going to have to make some difficult decisions in order to strengthen this economy,” the Premier says.
Nor were there enough credible, independent studies endorsing the tax for the liking of skittish Liberal MPPs. It took until November for the most important of these to be released when the University of Calgary’s Jack Mintz concluded the reduction in capital costs to business will help create 591,000 new jobs over the next decade — 103,000 in manufacturing alone.
http://www.thestar.com/news/ontario/hst/article/830336
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