The benefits of a tax cut for Canadian businesses and workers.

A useful and intuitive definition of “economic freedom” is the freedom (absence of coercion) to buy from, or sell to, a willing counterparty. A society based on economic freedom is a free-market society. But is economic freedom economically beneficial? Is it all about money? Is it moral? Aren’t there many exceptions where government intervention is warranted? This Economic Note addresses these questions.

Presentation by Kevin Brookes, Public Policy Analyst at the MEI, at the Canada 2020 Tax and Competitiveness Summit in Ottawa.

The benefits of a tax cut for Canadian businesses and workers.

As the fall economic update approaches, the rumour is that Ottawa favours targeted measures to promote investment, rather than reducing the corporate income tax rate. This would be a mistake. The competitiveness of Canadian companies has been hurt by US tax cuts, and also by deregulation efforts south of the border. The federal government should use its update to lower corporate income taxes and restore the Canadian advantage; not acting would entail substantial costs not just for businesses, but for workers as well.

What should be the economic priority of the CAQ government?

What financial frameworks reveal.

The governments approach to entrepreneurship must be rethinked.

The governments approach to entrepreneurship must be rethinked.

Many try to divorce entrepreneurship from any fiscal questions, claiming that entrepreneurship is basically a passion, and that entrepreneurs start businesses out of love. Yet one of the fundamental aspects of economic analysis is that cost variations are a primary factor in accounting for human behaviour. This paper aims to provide a frank, open discussion of the fiscal measures that affect entrepreneurship.