MARK MACDONALD
BRITISH COLUMBIA – How is the Canadian economy doing?
It depends on whom you ask. Federal and provincial governments release statistics that portray booming business across the land (almost), with near-record low levels of unemployment.
One indicator might be the “help wanted” signs hanging in many business windows, everywhere one turns. More so now than ever, companies are not only having trouble finding good employees, but workers, period. Especially in service industries which can only pay minimum wage, or just above that.
Due to that chronic labour shortage, some businesses are not able to grow as they would like. They don’t have the manpower to make the products or provide the services that they believe the market demands. As they manage their businesses, owners can either hope and wait for that to change so they can increase their staffing to increase production – or they can resign themselves to the fact they can’t get affordable labour to do that, and adjust their operations to maintain the status quo. That’s not exactly thriving, but it is surviving.
Then there’s this recent report released by the Fraser Institute, where President Niels Veldhuis states that since early 2020, Canada’s private sector has added just 56,100 new jobs. The government/public sector has accounted for 366,800 new jobs – a whopping 86.7 percent of all new net jobs during the same time period.
That is alarming, to say the least. While government types boast new employment figures, they’re obviously not disclosing that 7 out of 8 new jobs are paid directly by the taxpayer. In other words, the real economy, in terms of job creation, is barely growing, while the public payroll balloons. That is bad news for taxpayers, who are already overburdened.
As a very brief primer on the economy, let’s remind ourselves that government jobs are not economic generators. They are the result of the private sector generating real “first dollar” jobs, where wealth is brought into an economy to purchase goods or services. Those jobs are the ones that really make a difference and create revenue that isn’t just recirculated. They are importing money from customers in other areas, provinces, states and countries.
An argument could be made that government workers actually don’t really pay taxes at all. Let’s say they make $100,000 per year, and are taxed at 35 per cent. Then they actually keep $65,000, because the other $35,000 they pay in “tax” actually stays with the government they receive it from in the first place. Their T-4 can actually serve as a placebo of sorts, since they’re not actually making the $100,000 at the top, but the $65,000 at the bottom – and all of the money comes directly from taxpayers.
The only way government jobs can be supported is if there are real taxpayers. So, while socialist-style governments may pay lip-service to business, they demonstrate disdain by the way they hamper and hinder progress with increased bureaucracy and tax the rewards for the business owners’ risk – profits – at the end of the day.
We are seeing in real time what happens when governments print money that isn’t attached to anything: Record inflation. Nothing is free, and the CERB and other government handouts during the Covid panic were mortgages on the future of not just our children, but ourselves. We are paying today for the cheques of yesterday, with food prices skyrocketing. Restaurant owners have raised prices to cover the increased cost of food and the government hiking of minimum wages, so that breakfast now hovers around $18 per serving at the corner café. It wasn’t that long ago that lunch, and some dinners typically cost that much.
As federal and provincial governments inject gas taxes to combat climate change, Canadians don’t seem to stop and even consider that ludicrous statement in itself. Paying more money at the pump saves the earth? Who comes up with lines like that, and why don’t we stop, think about it, and question it? Why not use our technology – not taxes – to preserve the environment?
Covid became a convenient opportunity for civic governments to pile on property taxes. Looking at the wish lists of local politicians, one might think they believe they’ve won the lottery and can’t wait to spend it on their pet project of choice. The continual crimping of supply through bureaucratic red tape and fees has driven the cost of housing upward, and because people who still live in the same house see the value of their abode increase, they don’t flinch as much when they get their tax bills.
They are viewed by homeless-focused governments as the rich, anyway, because they own their homes, and you know what they love to do to the rich: Tax them. So it becomes socially awkward to protest a 5-8 per cent increase in property taxes, when their homes have increased 10-12 per cent, right?
If we’re not getting nailed on our cheques by federal and provincial taxes, that pay for the bloated public service (governments make the rules, then hire more people to enforce the rules), then homeowners are getting raided by local governments and school boards who siphon funds from homeowners – who don’t realize the increase of their investment until they sell.
Taxes on the increase from every corner. 86.7 per cent of new jobs being in government – paid by taxpayers. Is the economy growing or healthy? Only the private sector can answer that.
Mark MacDonald is President of Communication Ink Media & Public Relations Ltd. and Author of the book “It Worked For Them, It Will Work For Me: The 8 Secrets of Small Business I Learned From Successful Friends”, which can be obtained by reaching him through: mark@communicationink.ca
