6 days ago
Letters to the editor, July 16: ‘Do Canadian businesses need more tax incentives and even lower tax rates than they already enjoy?'
Re 'Canada must match the tax incentives in Trump's 'Big Beautiful Bill' ' (Report on Business, July 10): Say what? Do Canadian businesses need more tax incentives and even lower tax rates than they already enjoy?
Canadian businesses owe tens of billions of dollars in unpaid, uncontested taxes each year, and this debt to the public is growing. Moreover, Canada is already the king of corporate welfare: Its spending is among the highest in the developed world relative to population and GDP, and it has grown much faster than in most other major economies.
This stands in stark contrast to Canada's comparatively low investment in social programs, setting it apart from European peers who prioritize social spending over business subsidies. Notably, business subsidies in Canada have increased by 140 per cent at the federal level since 2014.
Calls for further tax breaks ignore the already generous environment Canadian businesses enjoy and the mounting public cost.
Timothy Kwiatkowski London, Ont.
Re 'The small-bore view of oil-pipeline critics' (Editorial, July 11): Experts at garden hose use are well aware that having an extra bucket at the ready is indeed an essential strategy. At some stage, however, there should be a run to the tap to mitigate the flow.
It is fine to suggest pipeline investors are the ones to shoulder the risk, but such risk extends well beyond their pockets and into the lives of future generations.
Peter Tobin Ottawa
It was the Alberta NDP and federal Liberals who permitted and built the Trans Mountain pipeline expansion.
It was the B.C. NDP and federal Liberals who permitted the Coastal GasLink pipeline and LNG Canada export plant.
And it may very well be the federal Liberals who permit and possibly build another oil pipeline to the West Coast – this time to one of the safest locations for an oil terminal in Prince Rupert – and a pipeline to a liquefied natural gas plant in Quebec.
The antagonism, especially in Alberta, against Ottawa, Liberals and 'leftist radicals' feels little more than a divisive ruse to mislead a gullible sector of the public by power-seeking right-wing groups.
Let's not go down a Trump-like path.
Mike Priaro Calgary
Re 'Money to burn' (Letters, July 9): The letter sounding the climate change alarm, and expressing distress about the state of the world our grandchildren will inherit, resonated with me.
Since Prime Minister Mark Carney stated in his victory speech, 'It is time for ambition,' and that Canadians 'need to think big and act bigger,' then is this not the time to go full bore on decarbonization?
Climate change is upon us with a vengeance, adversely impacting our air quality, lifestyles as well as our mental and physical health.
The time to push the green agenda, not more oil and gas infrastructure, is now: The alarm bells are clanging!
Our descendants are depending on us to get it right.
L.H. MacKenzie Vancouver
Re 'More money for Canada's military should mean more transparency and accountability' (Opinion, July 11): I am no economist.
However, it seems quite clear that boosting spending to 5 per cent of GDP by 2035 means that it has to happen over a possibly longer horizon than has been laid out, and we must aggressively grow the economy, hence revenues, or else taxes will have to be increased, the size of the civil service diminished, and program spending reduced.
So let's get real and get to work as it's not possible to have your cake and eat it, too, and most importantly, Canadians know this.
Desmond Pouyat Toronto
I note many articles lately concerning Canada's proposed military budget. What about forming a firefighting army around military principles, which can be complete with a contingent of appropriate planes, helicopters and boots on the ground that can be rapidly deployed in numbers anywhere needed?
Perhaps during our winters, they could be sent elsewhere to fight, and in doing so, will go some length to resurrect that Canadian reputation of providing willing, selfless assistance to those in need, even south of the border should fires break out there.
Creative redeployment of our current firefighting expenditure in favour of this army would solve many problems.
Evan MacDonald Markham, Ont.
Re 'Healthcare of Ontario Pension Plan CEO shakes up the fund's top leadership' (Report on Business, July 10): By my count, four women were promoted to new positions and one man was replaced.
What's that sound I hear? Is that a glass ceiling exploding?
Peter Shier Toronto
Re 'Alberta to ban books deemed sexually explicit from school libraries' (July 11): Raise a hand if you think the books in school libraries are too 'sexually explicit.' That's what I thought.
Teach students how sex works, then let them read the library books – all of them, before they are purged for whatever reasons that are embarrassing to Alberta school officials.
Sex is normal and natural. That's how we all got here.
Know about it. Do it. Get on with life.
I really don't know why adult humans are so embarrassed by sex.
Kathleen Moore EdD Toronto
Re 'The very courageous six-year-old learning to ride a bike for the very first time' (July 10): When my six-year-old daughter told me she had ridden a friend's bicycle, I was skeptical.
When my second daughter was the same age, I saw her get on a friend's bike and just ride it. No problem.
Puzzle, solution: They'd both spent a lot of time riding scooters. They'd learned the body language of riding on two wheels.
Riding a bicycle? No problem.
Barbara Shaw Cambridge, Ont.
I remember the bike stage for both our children very clearly.
The best advice I can offer parents training their kids on first rides is this: Take the pedals off and put them on the shelf, then make sure the kids can touch the ground. It is also best to use a bike with handlebar brakes rather than pedal coaster brakes.
(Forget training wheels: They only prop kids up and don't actually give them a sense of balance.)
Push the kids slowly, in small increments; they very quickly learn balance. Soon they push off and go 50 metres coasting. My son and daughter were riding by the next day.
Put the pedals back on and kids will combine their coasting with pedal motions.
Brian Layfield Oakville, Ont.
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