This week, readers in Hub Forum engaged in discussions on whether there is hope for Canadian universities, Doug Ford appointing conservative judges, why higher corporate taxes will ultimately hurt Canadians, how British Columbia and Alberta are playing with fiscal fire, and the dangers of believing in public policy fairy tales.
The goal of Hub Forum is to bring the impressive knowledge and experience of The Hub community to the fore and to foster open dialogue and the competition of differing ideas in a respectful and productive manner. Here are some of the most interesting comments from this past week.
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Is there hope for Canada’s universities?
Monday, March 4, 2024
“Each citizen should be committed to free and open inquiry in all matters, guaranteeing all members of society the broadest possible latitude in good faith to speak, write, listen, challenge, and learn. We should strive to make truth-seeking a marquee signature of our society.”
— Paul Attics
There’s nothing wrong with appointing conservative judges
Tuesday, March 5, 2024
“The role of a judge is to interpret the law and apply it to the relevant facts. Some people are more competent at this than others. The better judges should be appointed. The judgement of who is more competent should be made by politically independent people with the appropriate legal training and experience.”
— Biff Matthews
“Appointing judges consistent with your political values is part of democracy. Nonetheless, said Judge needs to be objective, fair, and consistent with the law”
— Ben
“The ability to apply the law appears to be overruled by the need to make decisions based on political need, not judicial. There is no perfect system but at least, in the current term, our judicial system is at arm’s length of the politicians as they appear to select those best qualified.”
— Crispin
Higher corporate taxes will ultimately hurt Canadians
Wednesday, March 6, 2024
“We need to find a fair balance [for our taxes] and certainly hold government to be fiscally responsible—something which is never easy.”
— Cathy
“As Ronald Reagan famously said: ‘Business doesn’t pay taxes. It collects taxes.’ Corporations are a coalition of employees, customers, and owners and they pay the taxes in varying degrees depending on the competitiveness of the industry. Employees pay by slower wage growth or even not being hired in the first place. As employees, customers, and owners look for better jobs/prices/returns elsewhere, the business shrinks and economic activity falls. Do that across an economy and standards of living fall.”
— Steve
Canada’s two richest provinces are playing with fiscal fire
Thursday, March 7, 2024
“All provinces are facing demographic realities that are going to make it more and more expensive just to run in place, while at the same time needing to deal with historic challenges like climate change. The challenges of population aging on health care are obvious. It will cost more to maintain the same standard of care. The challenges of the supposed solution to population aging are less obvious. Population growth is expensive, not a free lunch, and expanding public infrastructure to accommodate a larger population eats into the benefits of a larger tax base. This shows up somewhat in B.C.’s record levels of capital spending.
Governments face difficult trade-offs: maintain spending, even when that leads to congested infrastructure or declining services; raise an unprecedented amount of revenue; accumulate debt; or let those demographic challenges cut into investment in the future and spending on other age groups.”
— Valerie
It’s time to stop believing in policy fairy tales
Friday, March 8, 2024
“Instead of a full coverage policy on pharmacare, I would prefer that the provinces take this up and do the coverage that their constituents want and need.”
— Alice
