Summary
To be fair, Canada's West has benefited from a commodities and resource boom while Ontario's natural resource sector -- forestry -- has been the victim of a high dollar, aging infrastructure and declining demand. About 20 per cent of Ontario's GDP originates in manufacturing, and job creation in Ontario has been dragged down by declines in this sector.
To make matters worse, Ontario has embarked on a public sector revenue spree that hurts competitiveness. Over the period 2003-07, Ontario's GDP increased by 17 per cent while provincial government revenues rose 35 per cent and expenditures 24 per cent. Ontario has become a more heavily taxed jurisdiction and increased public spending, yet curiously still ranks near the bottom in provincial per capita rankings of university funding, has a substantial proportion of its population without a family doctor and is on the verge of running out of electricity without spending billions more on hydro generation. Its hydro rates are already among the highest in North America, further eroding its competitive economic advantage. While good things do grow in Ontario, sound and innovative government economic policy has not recently been one of them. Ontario must reform and lower its taxes to make its economy more competitive and attractive for new investment. Ontario must streamline and decentralize its centralized government apparatus by giving its regions greater autonomy in areas like health-care service delivery and the management of lands, hydro and natural resources.See the full content of this document
Extract
Ontario Is an Aging Economic Athlete
Livio Di Matteo
IN the wake of his election win, Premier Dalton McGuinty appears oblivious to news that Ontario's economy is slowing.Much like a triumphal Roman emperor, the premier quickly moved ahead with plans to create a new public holiday in February. Indeed, during the d...See the full content of this document
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