Fair Deal or No Deal

Kelly Toughill's article raises the spectre that a 100% deal for Newfoundland will fundamentally shift Canada's basis for the equalization scheme.

Fine! The province needs to follow the Irish example. Cut taxes, especially for small businesses and let the market decide who the winning entrepreneurs wil be; not equalization, not ACOA, and not the government, blinded by short term political exigencies (easy to say from the economic mecca on the prairies!)

I tend to agree with Michael Walker of the Fraser Institute on this one. For too long in Newfoundland and Labrador the government (provincial & federal) has been looked to as the saviour. It's not a sustainable condition.

This is where my Dad jumps in to correct my "skewed" perspective. He sees the need for self determination but his point, and it has some validity, is that the totality of government largesse in that "far greater bay" pales in comparison when compared to the payments made and/or concessions granted to the Ontario auto industry and the Quebec aeropsace/snowmobile industry. True, but two wrongs don't make a right.

Employment Insurance needs desperately to be reformed. Seasonal industries (logging, fishing, etc.) dictate certain impositions on the labour force but the 10/42 equation is unjust. It is a huge disincentive to the labour force (paying people to fester or driving their work underground, off the books) and it imposes false economies on small businesses looking for employees.