one example is the tax credit on capital investment. the counter-tariffs were heavily geared at taxing capital investment, which was bafflingly stupid. now, they're offering tax credits to offset the taxes in the counter-tariffs. what is that going to cost in terms of bureaucracy to administer?
i would rather see them cancel the counter-tariffs and just go strictly with the budget items. but i can't criticize that. it's really necessary after pushing through the counter tariffs.
if they're going to spend money on infrastructure, i would have liked to see more money for the following:
- hydro-electric dams
- research & development at the university level
- direct funding for climate resilience
almost all "innovation" results from government spending at public universities. the private sector makes essentially no contribution to "innovation". carney's been rambling about this since day one, but there's no money for r&d in the budget. you don't get "innovation" without government funding and it's not there.
further, we need to generate more clean electricity in canada and the best way to do it is to build more dams. this is absent from the budget.
canada is also already dealing with the consequences of climate change. one example is forest fires. the depth of the recent king tide should wake some people up as to what's coming. and we're heading into december in southern ontario without a first frost.
there needs to be money available to deal with these issues in terms of building public infrastructure. it's not there.
i'm not concerned about gas prices and am opposed to temporarily removing the gas tax. everything else aside, money raised by temporary boosts in the price of oil should be responsibly invested into infrastructure for climate resilience. that isn't being done.
i don't support money for stupid things like hockey rinks, but it's a trivial amount in the federal budget.