Tony At 10: EFFECTIVE GOVERNMENT OR A WASTEFUL ONE;BLOG # 2063; DEC. 16, 2016

THE MESSAGE:

Canadians need to stop worrying about being politically correct. A spade is a spade but it may also be called a f**king shovel. We must stop electing leaders who are more interested in their power and image than what is best for the country. There is a ton of misinformation out there that promotes deceptive, smooth or handsome representatives. These politicians receive support from the mainstream media and people who do not bother to think for themselves, or investigate and draw realistic conclusions. It is no longer acceptible to pass off the protests of activists with biased and bogus agendas as 'nothing to worry about'. Let us use our energy to seek out and elect candidates who promise to rid the country of fanatical, wasteful and nonsensical politics.

SERIOUSLY!

H.S. Truman once said Political Correctness is a doctrine, recently fostered by a delusional, illogical minority and promoted by a sick mainstream media, which holds forth the proposition that it is entirely possible to pick up a piece of sh*t by the clean end!

THE BLURB:

EFFECTIVE PRODUCTIVE GOVERNMENT

EDUCATION IN CANADA

I believe that the Canadian schools must emphasize technical education and apprenticeships at an early age so that the chances of finding employment are a real possibility for every young person in our country. There needs to be a government mandate to encourage young people to stay in school and take advantage of innovative technical and practical programs that are designed to lead to future employment in fields where such jobs are required.

Post-Secondary education in Canada, while much less costly than south of the border, is still too high and many students begin their careers burdened with debt. If the federal government would refrain from large grants to questionable scientific research, the money saved could be devoted to helping students graduate debt free.

MINIMUM GUARANTEED INCOME

Some Government action would be of great benefit to many citizens who require help. A minimum Guaranteed Income is a sensible and worthy plan.

A new pilot project is being considered by Ontario Premier Kathleen Wynne, which could guarantee working-age Ontario adults, annual incomes of $22,000 by April 2017.

FORMER SEN. HUGH SEGAL

He has been a vocal proponent of basic income for decades, and now will have the opportunity to help make the idea a reality. Ontario’s provincial government has appointed Segal — former chief of staff to Prime Minister Brian Mulroney — as an advisor on the design and implementation of its basic income pilot project.

Though he can’t talk about his pending recommendations, Segal says there are people experiencing “third world-levels of poverty,” particularly in indigenous communities. He points to the limits of existing social assistance programs with “disincentives to work built in” that are “unnatural and unconstructive.”

He understands their plight better than most. He grew up with working poor parents — his dad was a cab driver, his mom an all-night cashier. In the days before universal health care, he has visceral memories of his parents looking at bills for doctors, pharmacists, groceries, rent and heat. “We could pick any two,” he says. “It was all that we could afford.”

EVELYN FORGET
She is an economist, professor in the Department of Community Health Sciences at the University of Manitoba and Academic Director of the Manitoba Research Data Centre.

Forget has offered her recommendations to Ontario policymakers. She reports that the main takeaway from the now extinct Mincome project in Winnipeg is that basic income reduces the stress of poverty, thereby resulting in less domestic violence, fewer workplace injuries, decreased hospital visits, and higher levels of education. She says in her report modern basic income could provide the necessary social capital for people, especially youth, to take risks and build social enterprises that could strengthen the Canadian economy.

LYNN MCINTYRE

Is a health professor at the University of Calgary and has researched hunger and poverty over 20 years and agrees with Forget’s findings. McIntyre conducted research showing that basic income, given in the form of the Guaranteed Income Supplement, reduces hunger by almost half, to where most seniors don’t need food banks.

VALERIE TARASUK,

of Nutritional Sciences whose research focuses on food insecurity and food policy in Canada is a professor at the University of Toronto. She says Ontario can afford a basic income program for working-age adults. She points to data released this year by the Institute for Clinical and Evaluative Sciences that shows poor adults in Ontario use twice as many health care dollars as those with higher incomes. In the last decade, poverty cost Ontario taxpayers about $134 billion in health care expenses.

WASTEFUL GOVERNMENT

"The Budget should be balanced, the Treasury should be refilled, public debt should be reduced, the arrogance of officialdom should be tempered and controlled, and the assistance to foreign lands should be curtailed, lest Rome will become bankrupt. People must again learn to work instead of living on public assistance." - Cicero , 55 BC

So, evidently we've learned bugger-all over the past 2,071 years.

NOW, ABOUT THAT CARBON TAX

ARTICLE FROM THE TORONTO SUN

Whatever climate deals Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and this country’s Premiers force upon Canadians, nothing is permanent. All can be revoked.

That was the message the Sun editorial board took away after meeting with Chris Berg, a senior fellow at the Australian-based Institute of Public Affairs.

Berg was touring the country courtesy of the Canadian Taxpayers Federation, which wanted to highlight Australia’s disastrous flirtation with carbon pricing. Berg and his organization enjoyed a front row seat while Australia implemented a controversial cap-and-trade tax on carbon in 2012 that cost Australians $8 billion annually – only to remove it just two years later.

The governing conservative party there first supported the emissions-reduction scheme. But in the face of public resentment after electricity prices spiked 25%, an “Axe the Tax” backlash led to political upheaval and the cancellation of the costly and hugely unpopular plan.

Berg was in Canada to deliver this cautionary tale, and warn Canadians not to go down this destructive path – though some provinces are doing just that. And, according to Trudeau, every province will soon have some form of carbon pricing.

Make no mistake.

The current crop of carbon pricing schemes proposed here will significantly escalate our cost of living and do little to help the global environment.

They will divert billions of dollars from your pockets, and pad government pockets.

Hopefully, we can learn from Australia’s story. We need to tell our politicians we care about the environment but reject flawed and expensive tax grabs as a means to address global environmental issues, particularly now that U.S. President Donald Trump is doing just that.

There are alternatives and we shouldn’t buy into policy developed by activists.

We can repeal cap and trade in Ontario. We can repeal the carbon tax in Alberta. We can stop punitive measures from being implemented on hardworking Canadians from coast to coast all in the name of some ill-conceived green agenda.

People in Ontario are justifiably angry about skyrocketing energy bills. Albertans are just starting their activism against their carbon tax.

Governments, corporations and individuals can address environmental issues and work together toward solutions. But schemes that serve to drive up costs, particularly on low income people, are just wrong.

Let’s learn from Australia’s lesson and reject or repeal them.

THE BIG WASTE!

QUEBEC

David Heurtel Minister of Sustainable Development, the Environment and the Fight Against Climate Change.

This Provence has jumped all over the carbon cap-and-trade market. As a result, while everyone else on earth is currently benefiting from a big price reduction at the pump, Quebecers have been buying gas at an extra 2 or 3 cents per litre over the last three weeks. Quebec’s most important transportation company, Groupe Robert, recently sent a memo to all its drivers saying: “When returning from Ontario or the U.S., we recommend you fuel before you cross the Quebec borders.” Other companies have also anonymously confirmed doing the same.

Quebec politicians were in a hurry to adopt a bill imposing their carbon pricing model. They failed to do an economic evaluation of their new policy.

The tax could become a disaster for both the trucking industry and the public treasury. Quebec truckers consume more than 1.1 billion litres of diesel fuel every year. Even if they change their buying habits by fuelling up outside the province, truckers will still consume as much and emit as many greenhouse gases.

Disaster is lurking! Quebec might well end up with smaller tax revenues, layoffs of people working for local petroleum providers and a zero impact on climate change. When questioned about such an outcome, Quebec’s Environment Minister David Heurtel answered that these are small inconveniences compared to not acting against climate change. You must be kidding!

HELP IS ON THE WAY

Quebec’s legislature just passed a bill that will pave the way for more oil and gas exploration. The new legislation will make drillers such as Junex Inc. happy but it has drawn criticism from environmental, aboriginal and citizen groups.

ONTARIO

Premier Kathleen Wynne opened the door recently to a new tax that would combat climate change. Environment Minister Glen Murray was given the additional title of minister responsible for climate change and is preparing a report for the Liberal government on its options. "He's going to give us advice on that," she said "But as you know, in 2007-08 we were already part of an agreement around cap-and-trade, and so we need to now make that real in whatever form that takes."

The Progressive Conservatives accused the Liberals of trying to "sneak in" a new tax while gas prices are low, something they said Ontario cannot afford. Liberal history shows we can't believe their carbon tax will accomplish any objective other than picking everyone's pockets," said interim PC Leader Jim Wilson. "The Liberals are just desperate to take more of your money and will use any excuse to justify feeding their spending addiction."

Ontario Environmental Commissioner Gord Miller said British Columbia did the right thing with its carbon tax because the province also lowered income taxes at the same time, making the new environmental levy revenue neutral. "They lower the tax on income, which is the productive part of society, and they tax consumption and the emission of pollutants that cause climate change," said Miller. "It's a matter of being fair with people and making it very visible."

ALBERTA

Michelle Rempel PC MP is a Canadian politician, who is the federal Member of Parliament for the electoral riding of Calgary Nose Hill since the 2015 federal election. She stood up in the House to deliver a pointed and passionate address concerning the government's plan to implement a carbon tax that would be disastrous at this time foe the unemployed workers in the energy field.

BRITISH COLUMBIA

To hear it from Premier Christy Clark, British Columbia is a beacon of trailblazing perfection in the battle against climate change.

Marc Lee, senior economist for the Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives in the province, likes carbon taxes. But he says, "don't believe the hype on B.C.'s carbon tax. "The reality is that since 2010, B.C.'s GHG emissions have increased every year; as of 2013 they are up 4.3 per cent above 2010 levels. "The Liberals pledged to offset the carbon tax with reductions in other taxes. But those have favoured businesses, not families."Most of the carbon tax revenues (2/3) have been in support of corporate income tax cuts, plus 17 per cent to personal income tax cuts, 12 per cent to a credit for low-income households, and small amounts for a bunch of boutique credits, some of which have nothing to do with carbon," Lee writes.

"The low-income credit, in particular, offset the carbon tax for the bottom 40 per cent when it was first introduced in 2008, "but as the tax has gone up, the credit has not, making that whole regime regressive -- that is, low-income households pay a greater share of their income to the tax than higher-income households."

Lee's conclusion is that the B.C. carbon tax hasn't reduced greenhouse gas emissions. In fact it might have slowed economic growth. Also it hurts the poor while benefitting the rich -- and for this it's praised?

MORE GOVERNMENT BOONDOGGLES IN ONTARIO

Bonnie Lysyk, ONTARIO'S AUDITOR GENERAL, blasted the government on waste and mismanagement. She includes a Hwy. 401 bridge built upside-down. Lysyk also hi lights road contractors supplying faulty asphalt while not being required to honour warranties. One needs only to look at the number of pavement cracks on recent Hwy. projects to see the evidence.
She goes on to complain of medical costs in her revealing and damning report. The province’s move to a new method of paying doctors for their services has been a disaster and has cost the health ministry hundreds of millions of dollars in payments for care of patients who never visited their doctor.

In Ontario, family physicians had opted for the new enrolment model over the traditional fee-for-service model.

Under the enrolment model, doctors receive $3 per patient per month; whether the patient visited them or not. This has resulted in much higher costs without improving care; totalling in 2014-2015, an extra $522 million. This money would not have been paid under the fee-for-service model.

Wynne was a senior minister in McGuinty’s cabinet during the fiascos such as the cancelled gas plants. Current polls show her as Canada's least popular premier. Much of her unpopularity is likely due to the following facts:

Wynne is a staunch supporter of Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s national carbon price. Her government is implementing a cap-and-trade market in Ontario starting in January, which will increase consumer prices on many goods and services. By contrast, Canada’s most popular premier, Brad Wall of Saskatchewan, is also the Premier most opposed to Trudeau’s plan.

Wynne has decided to sell 60% of Hydro One to the private sector. Most polls show three-quarters of Ontarians oppose this move and the Canadian Union of Public Employees has launched a lawsuit to try and stop the sale.

Ontario’s skyrocketing electricity rates have infuriated ratepayers.

In Ontario, interest payments are approaching $12 billion a year. That’s more than is spent annually on post-secondary education, community safety, and six other ministries, combined.