{"id":44977,"date":"2019-04-02T09:20:51","date_gmt":"2019-04-02T14:20:51","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/?p=44977"},"modified":"2019-04-02T09:20:54","modified_gmt":"2019-04-02T14:20:54","slug":"morneau-is-flying-blind","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/?p=44977","title":{"rendered":"Morneau is Flying Blind"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Morneau is Flying Blind<\/a><\/h3>\n\n\n\n
\"Morneau<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

The Trudeau Government continues to resist calls for an overhaul of its complex tax regime. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Yet Bill Morneau, Canada\u2019s Minister of Finance, who was in town this week to address the Montreal Chamber of Commerce, wouldn\u2019t name a single non-accountant that he knew who understands tax code.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Pressed by local media, the Minister admitted that he had no idea whether even his own university-educated daughters\u2014who he has said are powerful influences on his political thinking\u2014were able to complete their own returns. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThe subject never comes up at the supper table,\u201d he joked. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Long-time tax reform activists greeted the news with a yawn. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThe Minister’s answer speaks for itself,\u201d says Aaron Wudrick, a director at the Canadian Taxpayers Federation. \u201cNobody understands the tax code because it’s absurdly complex.\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Cracks in Canada\u2019s centrally-planned economy<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Less well-understood is the fact that even the brightest public officials can\u2019t measure the far-reaching implications of the Income Tax Act and other complex legislation. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

That\u2019s because much of the government\u2019s spending comes in the form of increases in unfunded liabilities and hidden transfers caused by interest rate suppression. These expenses are kept off of the government\u2019s books, making them almost impossible for activists like Wudrick to challenge. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

This in turn raises growing questions about the overall effectiveness of Canada\u2019s centrally-planned economy, where public spending accounts for nearly half of GDP. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Some examples:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

1. Subsidizing electric vehicles, but giving bigger breaks for gas-guzzlers<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Morneau\u2019s proudest achievements include the government\u2019s environmental record, notably the measures announced in his budget to support the electric car industry.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Unfortunately, the Canadian government also provides billions of dollars of much-larger subsidies to buyers of gas-guzzling cars, trucks and SUVs.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

 \u2026click on the above link to read the rest of the article\u2026<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Morneau is Flying Blind The Trudeau Government continues to resist calls for an overhaul of its complex tax regime.  Yet Bill Morneau, Canada\u2019s Minister of Finance, who was in town this week to address the Montreal Chamber of Commerce, wouldn\u2019t name a single non-accountant that he knew who understands tax code. Pressed by local media, […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[12351,103,106,25500,6355,25501],"class_list":["post-44977","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-economics","tag-bill-morneau","tag-canada","tag-canadian-government","tag-canadian-minister-of-finance","tag-sprott-money","tag-tax-code"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/44977","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=44977"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/44977\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":44978,"href":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/44977\/revisions\/44978"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=44977"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=44977"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=44977"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}