Cambridge Chamber of Commerce

Isn't It Just Raising The Bar On Poverty?

2010-03-11T07:38:00.002-05:00

Well the end of this month the Provincial Government (Ontario), who brought us harmonized tax all in the name of business, which by the way I am a fan of, and feel it will absolutely be a benefit to businesses across the spectrum, now however raises the minimum wage to $10.25 at the end of March, 2010. The Government giveth, the Government taketh away. I guess it shouldn't be a surprise, however all levels of government are under incredible pressure to eliminate poverty and/or do what they can to reduce it. I'm a HUGE fan of reducing or even the loftiest of goals, eliminate poverty. Everyone from me to Donald Trump want more financially independent consumers in the market place, can you just imagine the surge in the global market with poverty eradication? I would probably say, capitalists are just as in favour of poverty reduction/elimination as socialists are, maybe more so, the difference is in how it happens. Socialists believe that poverty reduction or elimination can only happen on the backs of business, wow, they are correct, in fact, they've hit the nail right on the head. Business is the only societal function that produces money, every other function in society spends the wealth business produces. So, poverty fighters, does it make sense to reduce the opportunity for business to generate wealth, the only mechanism in society that actually can generate it? Or would it make more sense, to tear down the barriers, and create opportunities for business to generate more, create more jobs and put a greater percentage of the population to work than ever before. Clearly, anyone can see, raising the minimum wage means very little to most employers. They already pay more than minimum wage anyway. So who is this going to help? No one is the answer, who is it going to hurt? Every retail business employee, is the answer. The business will do what it needs to in order to remain profitable, prices go up, if the economy can stand it, if not, employees get let go. Government should indeed, eliminate income tax on any earnings below the poverty line. It seems almost damming that government feels it has the right to take earnings from someone who is defined by the governments own benchmarks as being the working poor. The magic of politics, which cup is the ball under? I suspect all of them or none of them, whatever works to make the show go on. Good thing those politicians don't run our businesses, there would be nothing left to help anything. Great move, real heads up thinking by someone. I suspect it came from those who believe that business is bad. Bad as it is, without business we have nothing, not even the shirt on our back.

Ontario's 2010 Budget - Pre-Throne Speech

2010-03-08T10:04:00.002-05:00

Are we expecting too much from our Governments lately? The Feds with a 50+ billion dollar deficit, the Ontario Government with a 20+ billion dollar deficit, and all we here is "what's in it for me?". Hopefully the majority of folks can say that the "keeping the ship on course" message is really what is in it for all of us. Ensuring that policies that allow private enterprises to grow, create jobs and prosperity continue. Making sure the burdens business has on its shoulders, keeping it from doing what it does best, "doing business", are deferred, reduced or even better eliminated, are good for all of us. We heard in the Federal Budget that these are foremost in the agenda going forward, along with the continued support in R&D and assisting emerging technologies to advance. Not surprisingly, the McGuinty Governments move to harmonizing sales tax is wildly unpopular. I can certainly understand the consumers fret over this, but not businesses. Business is for the most part the big winner. Now, business will no longer pay any sales tax at all. Everything becomes an input tax credit and this is sure to eventually reduce costs, well, at least in most areas. My personal belief is that the new HST isn't such a bad idea, in fact it is a 21st century tax policy and competing globally like we do, it only makes sense to have the same taxation policies as our customers (other countries) do. Value Added Tax policies are pretty much the norm out there folks, this is what will make us most competitive on the world stage. That being said, it appears, at least on the surface, the focus of governments these days is in fact to encourage jobs, growth and new opportunities for everyone, am I missing something, because I kind of like that agenda. We can't afford to enhance expenditures, if those expenditures do nothing to promote private investment in jobs, sorry to those who disagree, but if cuts have to come, they shouldn't at the expense of business. It is obviously a huge hurdle for people who are out of work, but investing in the creation of new opportunities is what should and must happen. I anticipate the same type of Budget in Ontario as we saw from the Federal Government, Mr. Duncan is pretty much a shoot from the hip kind of guy, he is opinionated, but an extremely capable Minister of Finance. I don't always agree with him or Mr. Flaherty, but as long as they keep giving opportunties for business to prosper, create jobs and advance our economy, I figure it could always be worse. I'm an optimist, and I hope its going to be the right budget, for right now.

Harper Government Stays the Course

2010-03-05T07:10:00.002-05:00

Well, Mr. Ignatieff and Mr. Layton aren't happy with the Federal Budget delivered by Minister of Finance Jim Flaherty March 4th, 2010. Ok, so please tell me if anyone is surprised? Of course they aren't happy with it, Mr. Ignatieff isn't happy because its a budget that has little wiggle room away from staying the course, so its really not exciting and invigorating, thus, he struggles with the "no vision" concept. Mr. Layton, well, he won't be happy till we all aren't happy, and that means jacking up taxes, increasing government spending, and providing a whole sector of new government jobs, yup, increase the size of government so they can all take care of us. Business is the big winner in this budget, it speaks to continuing efforts to help rebuild our manufacturing sector, the most hard hit and most important sector to look after. Our global competitiveness depends on new advanced manufacturing techniques and its a must to continue these programs, support business investment, which will create the jobs we need to fully recover. Oddly, some people don't care about business, however, business is what creates all wealth, all government does is spend it, and wow can they spend it. Is there a negative issue in this budget, YES (caps are appropriate). Relying on growth to pay down the huge deficit and debt created through this recent economic turmoil, is very bold (better word might be dumb) thinking. With government expenditure increases averaging around or more than the annual anticipated growth, I unfortunately believe, the government has to cut deep into its own self to keep the pace of promise to balance the books in the medium to short term period. While I believe that the government probably missed the mark on other initiatives it could/should have included in the budget, like moving the GST/HST tax off the excise tax on a litre of gas which would certainly help Ontarians with the new HST coming in July. Taxing tax is probably illegal unless your the government, but if it isn't illegal, then it is definitely immoral. This budget is probably close to the best that could be done given the times. It holds the line on new spending, finishes out the proposed stimulus spending allocations and continues to provide an advantage for business so it can invest in the new knowledge-based economy, surge out of recession with more jobs, a higher standard of living for every Canadian and creating an innovative and entrepreneurial business climate. Yes, as Mr. Ingnatieff says, it lacks vision, that may well be because the focus has got to be on bringing things back to affordability, sustainability and manageability. We also have to ask, what were your ideas Mr. Ignatieff and Mr. Layton? I missed that part, all I heard was the budget lacks vision, it leaves Canadians behind and its not what we out here in taxpayer land have been saying we want. So help me, your ideas were?

What's The 21st Century All About Anyway?

2010-03-03T13:51:00.000-05:00

Are you connected EVERYWHERE? Well if it's only to me then you have some issues to deal with. We live in a global economy, yes that's correct a local, oooops I mean global economy. There is a reason why I mistakenly said local rather than global, and that reason is because the global economy and local economy is in fact, one and the same. For a long time it's been easy to connect globally with people from a variety of places around the world, because email is a standard form of communication today. The high tech world around us is changing, literally by the minute. This morning we had an expert, Adam Oldfield President of FPM3 Marketing from Hamilton, tell us the trends, present the options and give us the bad news, and that is, if your not on now,you had bettter get on as soon as you can. Connect to the networks that will give you the most in value and constructive use of your time. Don't miss out, log onton, www.cambridgechamber.com and join in sharing your goods and services to the world.