Quote:
Originally Posted by Regorium
Consider AB citizens see a lot of that corporate profit as well in the form of big raises, big bonuses, lots of high paying jobs (including teachers and nurses), and low taxes.
I also agree that I don't know where the optimum balance of taxation is, but I would absolutely consider that just raising taxes does not directly lead to a different split of profits vs. health care. In fact it may mean that the split stays the same, but the pie gets smaller.
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And a lot of AB citizens saw it as a some getting to buy political influence, take exotic foreign vacations, purchase luxury cars/trucks while they get priced out of the housing market (and I'm not casting stones, I've been a big beneficiary myself).
Quote:
Originally Posted by Regorium
I would say it's not impacting the amount of capital spending, but absolutely is affecting the location of it. My company just spent a bunch of money in Mexico, southern US, and eastern Canada. The extra percentage points of tax and the risk premium based on the uncertainty royalty review are direct inputs to decide whether a project is prioritized or not.
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Every company has dramatically reduced their amount of spending. It's not just getting shuttled out of this province. And c'mon do we really want to be racing to the bottom vs mexico or the Southern US. Would you really want to raise your kids there? Companies are always going to want to pay less and governments are always going to want to take more - It's up to us reasonable citizens in the middle to balance out those competing interests.
It looks like those investment decisions could just as likely be based on access to tide-water and international markets than AB royalties or political uncertainty. How much more uncertain is AB when every other premier is 2-opinion polls away (or 1 election) from making similar changes (although i did forget about kudetahs - a uniquely AB threat)?