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JimmyCracksCorn
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Macedonia - Sovereign country north of Greece.
Dec 2002
time: 05:34
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From yesterday, surprised no one brought it up.
quote:
Ottawa — Federal corporate tax cuts targeted for cancellation were granted a surprise reprieve Tuesday as the Conservatives and Bloc Québécois joined forces to prevent a Liberal bid to remove them from the 2005 budget.
The move frustrates the minority Liberal government's plans to pull cuts for large corporations from its fiscal blueprint. It's part of a deal it made with the NDP to secure parliamentary support for the budget.
It also raised hopes among business groups that the tax cuts will survive — and be passed into law — as part of the 2005 budget rather than being delayed until an undetermined future date.
“I hope that common sense is prevailing,” said Canadian Chamber of Commerce president Nancy Hughes Anthony. “It was the right thing to do in the Goodale budget and it's still the right thing.”
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The Conservatives and Bloc Québécois were able to block removal of the tax cuts from the 2005 budget because they form a majority on the House of Commons finance committee that is scrutinizing the fiscal plan right now.
The Liberals and NDP Tuesday tried to amend the 2005 budget at committee, scrapping measures that would eliminate the corporate surtax for larger companies with assets of more than $50-million. They also tried to remove a reduction in the general corporate income tax rate that lowers it to 19 per cent from 21 per cent — a measure also expected to benefit larger companies more. Both amendments were defeated.
Finance Minister Ralph Goodale was undeterred by the setback, saying the Liberals still want to remove the tax cuts — in keeping with the NDP deal — and reintroduce them in a separate bill at a later date.
But he gave no timetable.
Mr. Goodale said he will tell finance ministers at this week's G8 meeting in London that Canada is proceeding with all the tax cuts. “Our commitment was to remove those from Bill C-43 and place them on their own independent legislative track,” Mr. Goodale said. “That's what we intend to do.”
The Liberals said they still plan to remove the cuts from the current budget, but there is no guarantee they will succeed. Their next opportunity would be at what's called report stage, when the bill leaves committee and re-enters the Commons.
But the government would have to marshal all its votes to try to amend the budget in a showdown similar to the May 19 budget vote.
Conservative finance critic Monte Solberg, who helped prevent the Liberals from removing the tax cuts Tuesday, said the Liberals' plan to scrap tax cuts from the budget but reinstate them later creates unfair confusion for investors trying to make plans.
“It's a bunch of needless hoops to jump through and creates uncertainty for the people who want to invest in Canada and don't know if it's a good idea,” Mr. Solberg said.
He said the Conservatives want Ottawa to send a signal to the markets by passing the cuts into law now. “What we're trying to do is force the government to leave the corporate tax relief in so we don't create uncertainty. We think the government is putting politics ahead of people's jobs,” Mr. Solberg said.
The C.D. Howe Institute said in April that cancelling the cuts could cost Canada as much as $31-billion in new capital investment that companies otherwise would likely have made once the cuts had taken effect.
David Stewart-Patterson, executive-vice-president of the Canadian Council of Chief Executives, said there's no reason to delay measures that a majority of MPs support.
“If the government is in favour of them and they are in a bill that's before the House, why mess with that?”
Business groups said they don't have faith that the Liberals will reinstate the corporate tax cuts for large companies at a later date.
“Actions speak louder than words,” Ms. Hughes Anthony said. “I cannot determine from the government's statements when that might be or whether they would be the same amount [of reductions].”
Mr. Stewart-Patterson said the Liberals should immediately move the tax cuts to a separate bill if they want to remain true to the NDP deal but also send a signal to investors.
The Conservatives also teamed up with opposition parties in finance committee meetings Tuesday evening to strike from the budget several measures designed to help Canada meet its Kyoto accord obligations.
Of the $4.6-billion in corporate tax cuts initially pledged in the Feb. 23 budget, only about $1.4-billion will remain intact should the Liberals and NDP succeed in removing some from the 2005 fiscal plan when it re-enters the Commons. The Liberals insist there is time to reinstate the tax cuts at a later date, in separate legislation, because they are not scheduled to take effect for several years.
But business groups insist they have to be enacted now to send signals to investors making multiyear investment plans. |
So. The NDP - biggest chumps ever?
The NDP supported the government in return for tax cuts being removed from the budget, despite Liberals saying at the time that those tax cuts would be taken from the budget only to be removed to seperate legislation. Why did the NDP agree to that in the first place?
Now, the Bloc and the Conservatives are preventing that legislation from even being removed in the first place while Goodale is publically saying that he will announce to the G8 that all tax cuts are going forward.
How could the NDP not have seen this coming, and what do you think this will mean for future NDP support of the Government?
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10-06-2005 00:39
I've never been a fan of 'beggar your neighbour' corporate welfare.
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