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Friday, May 01, 2009
New Hudak economic policies
Following a series of lackluster policy proposals (as outlined here, here and here), Tim Hudak finally has some policy that fiscal conservatives and libertarians can get behind. Today Hudak has announced a series of economic policies that would reduce the size of our provincial government.
Increase the small business tax threshold from $500,000 to $600,000. Leaving more money in the hands of entrepreneurs will result in small business owners investing back into their companies and creating more jobs. Of course, raising the threshold will benefit all companies, large and small;
Scrapping the McGuinty government’s corporate welfare programs that pick winners and losers. Instead the funds would be targeted at broad based tax relief for all businesses in Ontario;
Freeze the minimum wage until we become more competitive with the other provinces. Today, only Nunavut has a higher minimum wage than Ontario;
Follow the “BC model” to reduce red tape, including having a Minister responsible for establishing hard targets, providing political support and given real power to reduce the unnecessary regulations that drive up the time and cost that businesses put into compliance; and,
Give small business start-ups the option to defer taxes so that they don’t have to file until the end of their second year.
I would like more specifics on the corporate welfare platform. Are the "McGuinty government’s corporate welfare programs" just limited to corporate welfare that McGuinty brought in, or all corporate welfare from the province? Either way it is a step in the right direction, but if it is scrapping all corporate welfare, this policy is quite impressive.
I was ready to completely write off Tim Hudak. Now I'm not so sure. Hopefully there are more smaller government policies to come.
Posted by William Joseph on May 1, 2009 | Permalink
Comments
This is really good to see. I wonder if other candidates will follow suit and announce some meaty economic policy?
Posted by: Janet | 2009-05-01 8:07:28 PM
These are excellent policies. Hudak deserves a second look from libertarians and fiscal conservatives.
Posted by: Matthew Johnston | 2009-05-01 8:16:07 PM
It's not that these are not good policies, sure they are. It's just that they may sound more impressive than they actually are.
Is it good to increase the small business threshold? Sure... but remember this is Earnings, not Revenue... in other words if you're earning half a million after paying all your salaries and office space and matierials, you're already doing pretty well... and most real small businesses are nowhere near that. So it doesn't really help the small businesses; medium and large, sure.
Minimum wage freeze - this is probably the most important thing on the list but it's truly a political line in the sand and only that, given that it's been raised so high now that it's so unlikely that even the Liberals would raise it more. _Lowering_ it would have been a bold move.
And red tape.... sounds like the "red tape commission" from the CSR days. It was a great thing to rally around, but it underwhelmed in terms of the red tape actually cut.
Hudak's policies have all been decent in and of themselves. But I don't see them really wrapped in a clear vision or a compelling message for voters to rally behind and want to come over to vote for us. And at the end of the day, if we don't get elected we can't implement the policies.
Posted by: rightguy | 2009-05-02 8:01:27 PM
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