Upcoming government revenue tools, asset confiscation | General financial discussion | Discussion forum

Bud said
What do you think the thieves are going to implement

Asset sales rest of hydro one, full on privatization, crown lands, public sector cuts

Where are taxes headed  

I'd like to see deep, non-essential public sector spending cuts, to be honest. It would be laughable if it wasn't so deeply maddening that, in this day and age, the public sector manages to hold onto gold-plated defined benefit pension plans and gross inefficiency whereby it takes 10 workers to do the job of 1 worker, roughly speaking. Much of government administration could be centralized and automated. At the same time, in some cases, it could essentially be automated if universal basic income were implemented fully. No longer would we need government offices for people to fill out application forms in triplicate and pick up their monthly assistance cheques if it were all automated through the income tax system. As well, the PBO's report on the costing of a UBI is incorrect in that it doesn't take into account for the significant drop in health care and prison costs whereby people can be housed in the community, with a roof over their heads.

As for Hydro One, sell the remaining stake over the next two years, so it's telegraphed to the market, but legislate that the net proceeds be put into a Heritage Trust Fund whereby the principal could not be touched without a two-thirds majority resolution vote to amend the Heritage Trust Fund Act in the Ontario legislature.

Not sure what other asset sales they should consider, but I would hope that TVO be kept in public hands. If they sell it like Alberta and Saskatchewan did with theirs, it will be turned into a regional CTV Ontario television channel with very limited educational programming.

Cheers,
Doug

Kidd said
Doug, years ago we had kiosks in our malls to renew our licenses and they worked great. the Ontario government of the day had to create jobs for newly landed immigrants, so the kiosks were removed and 1,000s of jobs were created. now we rent expensive floor space and pay 1,000s who were never on the payroll before.

governments know only one thing. if we have one dollar, let's spend two.

i HATE government and the pigs who never leave the trough. bob rae and ralph goodale for examples. ralphy boy and petro canada make a great read. bobby has switched sides more often than the Italians in WW2.  

Wow, kiosks for driver's license renewals is brilliant actually! It'd be efficient as people wouldn't need to wait in line—they can go buy a coffee, purchase lunch, or do some shopping while they wait. Per square foot rents are higher in malls, but they're also not paying for 5,000+ sq. ft. of space for each office. Such a shame. 🙁

As for Bob Rae, his experience in Ontario was, from what I've read, dreadful. However, he's certainly been more of a statesman than Justin Trudeau. It's really too bad he wasn't the PM right now. Heck, he might even be spending less money! 😉

TD's federal budget deficit estimate for 2020-21 is $180 billion, but that doesn't factor in a prolonged COVID-19 response, particularly if the CERB has to be extended or EI has to be extended as well. Thus, with the further investments needed to help businesses, I suspect we'll end up with a ~$300 billion deficit. That's nearly half our entire federal debt!

Cheers,
Doug

The government needs to bring back manufacturing of all essential goods and others, we need industries to grow and expand the tax base to new industries that need to be setup! We already rank amongst the highest taxed nation so taxing more will just lead to evasion.

Kidd said
Doug, years ago we had kiosks in our malls to renew our licenses and they worked great. the Ontario government of the day had to create jobs for newly landed immigrants, so the kiosks were removed and 1,000s of jobs were created. now we rent expensive floor space and pay 1,000s who were never on the payroll before.

What you to fail to mention is that when those kiosks were removed, the self-serve license renewal system was migrated to an online tool. Not only did government save a lot of money in maintenance costs, but it also made the experience more user-friendly for taxpayers.

There is zero evidence that jobs were created and that money was wasted as a direct result of decommissioning those kiosks.

Please stick to the facts and refrain from making inflammatory statements that serve no purpose.

https://www.ontario.ca/page/renew-both-your-health-card-and-drivers-licence-online

Just my opinion but back then the kiosk were highly underutilized. I worked downtown and work by 1 kiosk a couple of times daily and it was never used when I walked by. I used it for license plate renewal which is once every 2 years.

And I dont truly understand why someone will prefer kiosk over online anyway these days.

Kidd said

Sorry Peseta, which service ontario office do you work at?   

I am glad you responded with a very strong and persuasive evidence to support your argument and logic

JenE, you're suggesting that this is not the place for those who complain about the current federal government.

On this forum we regularly, within the limits established by Peter (who does a great job, IMO), complain about those who we think are costing us money (and this thread's title and the first post alerts us to not read the thread if we don't like some politicizing), and so we complain about big business greed, about the big banks, about small banks that don't give us the promo rate, about Trump, about Harper, about pro-oil people in Alberta, you name it, you'll see it all over the years. I don't agree that the current government should have the only exemption to the whining, etc. IMO.