[Newsbot]

Title: Democratic reform, corporate tax bump revealed in Alberta throne speech
Category: Business
Posted By: martin14
Date: 2015-06-15 22:27:12
Canadian

[martin14]

I wonder how many of those 125k jobs have now gone, and won't be taxed.

No PST though, maybe next year.

[bootlegga]

martin14 martin14:

I wonder how many of those 125k jobs have now gone, and won't be taxed.

No PST though, maybe next year.

Notley may be NDP, but she isn't stupid. 3/4 of Albertans don't want a sales tax (even though it makes the most sense) and if she puts one in, she knows she'll kill the Alberta NDP for at least a generation, because she'll be gone in 2019.

[Thanos]

The weird thing is that a mild 3-4% sales tax harmonized with the GST wouldn't cause much harm at all, and would bring the books to a balanced state that much quicker, an act of fiscal responsibility that every conservative claims to believe in. The way the knives are out for the new government though (especially from those rats at the SUN), before they've even done anything at all really, means that the next four years in Alberta are just going to be a shitshow, a smaller version of the number the nutcases in the US have done to stop anything positive Obama tried to do. Notley's biggest and most difficult task will turn out to be merely keeping any forward momentum going because that barrage of nonsense that is going to come from the righties any time the government tries to accomplish anything is going to be pushing back with Category 5-force winds.

[bootlegga]

I wouldn't have a problem with a sales tax of up to 5%, but it's a no-go with most Albertans who view it as a point of pride, so there is no way that the Notley Crue will bring one in this term.

Even guys like Jack Mintz have advocated for a PST to stabilize revenues, although he said that the income tax exemption should rise to $57,000.

http://www.policyschool.ucalgary.ca/sit ... -final.pdf

If they are able to win in 2019, I could see it possibly, but this term it's a no-go and Notley has said as much.

I agree that Levant and the Sun chain will do their best to cause trouble, but the fact is that the NDP have a majority and there isn't much they can do other than bitch about those changes. Even the Wildrose can't do much other than drag things out in the Legislature before the Dippers eventually pass the bills they want - especially because Notley has said the MLAs will be sitting more days than they have in the past.

[DrCaleb]

I was rather surprised that Bill #1 will be to end corporate and union donations for political parties. Bill #2 will be a bill to increase large corporations from 10% to 12%. Also a good idea and campaign promise from the scary Communist heathens.

[martin14]

http://www.cbc.ca/news/business/alberta ... -1.3114314


Alberta throne speech optimism not shared by business owners

[andyt]

martin14 martin14:

http://www.cbc.ca/news/business/alberta-throne-speech-optimism-not-shared-by-business-owners-1.3114314


Alberta throne speech optimism not shared by business owners

Of course not, they're just like farmers. Always doom and gloom. It's too hot, it's too cold, it's too wet, it's too dry. The govt should get out of our affairs, the govt should prop us up. The govt should not collect taxes, but provide the infrastructure and educated workforce we need for our businesses.

[Thanos]

All of these conversations are literally redundant until OPEC turns the taps back from full to half.

[andyt]

$1:

SINGAPORE/LONDON/NEW YORK/TOKYO (Reuters) - A year on from the start of one of the biggest oil price crashes in history, the driving force behind the slide remains intact: there is still too much crude.
While output continues to grow, the economic outlook has darkened in top energy consumer China, where oil demand has been one of the few bright spots in the market.
Add to the mix record output by the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) and the possibility of a return of Iranian crude exports, and further price turbulence looks almost certain.

[Thanos]

Russia apparently also massively increased their production too in defiance of the sanctions over Ukraine. Europe's too dependent on Russia for oil and gas so they're not complaining at all any more. Looks like the tough talkers fucked up big time because their attempt to repeat the 1980's oil economics that sank the Soviet Union have failed miserably to dissuade Putin, and have only empowered the Saudis far past their actual relevance. If this idea came from Harper and Obama then the only success they've had is in damaging their own North American economy because, in a reversal from times past, the collapse in the oil price has triggered absolutely zero benefits for other parts of the economy. Well, unless you own a car dealership and the dimwits are flocking to buy Humvees again.

[andyt]

oil prices may be low, but I heard on the radio that gas here is back up to 1.40. I know I paid close to that on the weekend. So I'm certainly not seeing any benefit.

[Thanos]

They're currently using the summer refinery shut-down schedule as the main excuse, with the 'explanation' that the overhead of running a gas station being too high now to be able to tolerate a price under a dollar-per-litre for too long also being tossed in the mix. Truth is it's probably no complex than the commodity board gods on Wall Street simply waved their wands & sceptres and ominously intoned 'so let it be done' all Cecil B DeMille style.

At this stage in the proceedings I'm pretty much convinced that everything that happens on this planet now is simply multiple differentiations of what Johnny Rotten meant when he said 'Ha-ha! What does it feel like when you finally find out you've been cheated?'. No more con-jobs about democracy and power of the people or any of that other shit. The system everywhere is simply operating exactly the way it was designed to, the same way it always did in the past and the same way it always will in the future. Pretending otherwise, and wrapping oneself up in the comforting blanket of lies and endless 'everything is super!' propaganda, is just too tedious for words now.

[Unsound]

A two point hike in corporate tax rates won't do anything to the corporations. Oh, they'll huff and puff about it, because that's what they do, but they'll still be making billions of dollars here and they're not giving that up.

The financing reforms are a good idea. I chalk it up to the NDP caucus being mostly amateurs. Hopefully they get it through before they all realize what they're giving up.

[OnTheIce]

Unsound Unsound:

A two point hike in corporate tax rates won't do anything to the corporations. Oh, they'll huff and puff about it, because that's what they do, but they'll still be making billions of dollars here and they're not giving that up.

And that cost will be passed onto the consumer anyways, so in the end, it's the taxpayers that will pay for the increase.