In BC Big Business get the best Tax Breaks in North America-Where are the jobs?

The BC Liberal's have the lowest rate of taxes for Big Business in North America- Yet our unemployment is the highest in Canada! Clearly Mr.Harper, tax breaks to corporations in Canada do not create jobs- Just look at the model Gordon Campbell has done in British Columbia.

The BC Liberal government gives Big British Columbian corporations the biggest tax breaks in North America.  Despite this B.C. has the highest unemployment rate in Canada. (So much for the economic spin off from the Olympics and the jobs that the Harper Sales Tax (HST) was supposed to create. There is no evidence whatsoever that tax breaks to big business create jobs at all!
In fact this is what is happening.  To simplify things a bit.  Let's say you are working at a company and two years ago you had 10 workers doing the work. Through attrition with people either retiring or quitting you now have 6 workers working at your job. They have not replaced the workers that have left.  The boss comes to you and says you guys can no longer keep up, you are NOT doing your job.  End result they contract your job out.  No benefits, way cheaper for them.
By giving tax breaks of billion's of dollars to big business which only goes to CEO's, and Stock investors bottom lines and dividends.  We are seeing a systemic failure of our government to provide adequate public services , medical, education, senior care and so on.
They want to tell everybody we want less government- We do not want big government (Tea Party?)  What that really means if they choke off the resources to our education-pensions-medicare-public services they can tell us as Canadian's we can no longer afford these luxuries . They have anecdotally tried to make a case and state facts which just are not correct. In fact they are the perpetrators and creators of this problem in the first place.
This kind of thinking has lead to a desecration of the middle class- depriving people who have paid for services via taxes over the last 50 or 60 years of their life . Only now to see essential , vital services being attacked at every level by Stephen Harper and his Big Business Buddies.

With debate over more corporate tax cuts dominating pre-budget speculation, CCPA Senior Economist Armine Yalnizyan lays down five economic reasons to say no to more tax breaks to corporations this year or next: jobs, investment, costs, opportunity costs, and the need for working capital.
In this Globe and Mail article, Yalnizyan shows corporate tax breaks are the least effective way to create jobs. Better to invest in repairing aging infrastructure or improving supports for the still jobless and low-income Canadians.
Canada’s previous corporate tax cuts (a 10% cut in the tax rate over 10 years) has been proven to have little impact in terms of getting businesses to invest: business investment in 2009 was exactly the same as it was in 2000: 12.4% of GDP.
Canadian taxpayers end up subsidizing corporate tax cuts because Canada’s federal government is in a fiscal deficit – it has to borrow money to give corporate Canada another break.
Canada’s roads, bridges, water and waste systems, transit and municipal buildings face a $123 billion backlog of repair and maintenance. The corporations may be getting a break, but they aren’t responsible for public infrastructure. Governments are. We are. It is a false economy to stick the next generation with an unnecessarily higher price tag to repair the foundation for business, family and community needs everywhere, particularly when borrowing costs are at historic lows and unemployment still high.
Canada’s corporate taxes are among the lowest in the developed world. Who are we competing with? It’s time for a reality check: Canada’s corporate sector is sitting on a growing pile of cash. When businesses finally decide to put that money to use, we are likely to witness a wave of corporate consolidation. But mergers and acquisitions don’t necessarily create jobs in Canada.
An across-the-board general corporate income tax rate cut rewards companies whether they create jobs or kill them. Surely we can find a better way to use that money for the benefit of us all… including businesses.

Armine Yalnizyan is a senior economist with the Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives
The Harper government ’s commitment to further reduce the general corporate income tax rate while the nation struggles with budgetary deficits has been championed by – surprise! – the corporate sector. But the majority of Canadians, including business owners, and those who work for them, say no to these cuts now.
Here are five economic reasons not to keep reducing the federal corporate tax rate this year or next.
Least effective job creation measure
According to the nation’s official number crunchers, if you want policy to encourage job creation, cutting corporate taxes is the weakest option (20 cents growth from every dollar of tax cut). Spending on infrastructure has the most impact ($1.50 on every dollar spent). Finance shows spending on income supports for the unemployed and low income Canadians has an equally big pop, and housing initiatives are almost as good ($1.40 for every dollar spent).
Little Impact on investments
Federal corporate tax rates have fallen from 28 per cent in 2000 to 18 per cent in 2010. Business investment (in non-residential structures and equipment) as a share of GDP was 12.4 per cent in 2000. It was also 12.4 per cent in 2009, and on track for the same in 2010. In the 1960s, the heyday of industrial expansion and economic development in Canada, the federal corporate tax rate was 40 per cent. Statistics Canada’s data on business investment starts in 1981. That year the federal corporate tax rate was 36 per cent, and business investment represented 11.5 per cent of the economy. By 1990 the federal corporate tax had fallen to 28 per cent. Business investment had fallen to 10.8 per cent of the economy. There are many things that drive business investment practices, and while taxes are a consideration they are not the primary factor in investment decisions. The historic evidence shows a commitment to this strategy is a costly faith-based proposition.
Pay more tax to cut taxes
Since Fall of 2010, the Harper team has been saying corporate tax cuts “pay for themselves” in closed-door meetings like these. But Budget 2009 figures show reducing the general corporate tax rate from 22.12 per cent in 2007 to 18 per cent by January, 2010, removed $6.7-billion annually from public coffers, right through the worse of the recession. Cutting the rate further this year, to 16.5 per cent meant another $2.8-billion in foregone revenues annually. The Harper team’s commitment to reducing the corporate tax rate to 15 per cent ultimately reduces the size of the public purse by $13.7-billion annually by 2012, according to Finance estimates, at which time the federal budgetary deficit will be between $21- and $26-billion (the range of Finance, PBO and IMF estimates). Financing this tax cut requires borrowing more money. The average Canadian taxpayer will pay interest on the borrowed money to provide a tax break for profitable corporations.
False economies
The Harper government viewed infrastructure spending as an extraordinary one-time stimulus measure. The Federation of Canadian Municipalities estimates a $123-billion deficit in backlogged repairs and maintenance to core municipal infrastructure. This includes roads, bridges, water and waste systems, transit and municipal buildings – but not social housing, schools or hospitals. FCM estimates another $115-billion for new builds to meet new demands. Corporations may be getting a break, but they aren’t responsible for public infrastructure. Governments are. We are. It is a false economy to stick the next generation with an unnecessarily high price tag for what should be happening now – rebuilding the foundation for business, family and community needs everywhere, while the cost of borrowing is at historic lows and unemployment is still high.
The question of working capital
Finance Minister Jim Flaherty says Canada’s tax rates on new business investment are the lowest in the G7. Erin Weir’s blistering riposte to Jack Mintz shows our corporate tax rates among the lowest in the developed world. Who are we competing with? It’s time for a reality check: Canada’s corporate sector is sitting on a growing pile of capital. In the recessions of the 1980s and 1990s the business sector was a net borrower of cash to cover their costs, as one might expect during lean times. In contrast, during this recession the business sector just kept generating bigger and bigger surpluses. In 2007 the net surplus of the sector was $43-billion. By 2008, it was $57-billion and by 2009, $59-billion. By third quarter 2010, $51-billion was generated in surplus. That’s the surplus in the annual flow. The accumulated stock of ready cash (currency, deposits and short term paper) in the non-financial corporate sector had grown to $489-billion by third quarter 2010. That’s a lot of money. When it finally gets put to work, we are likely to witness a wave of corporate consolidation. But mergers and acquisitions don’t necessarily create jobs in Canada.
An across-the-board general corporate income tax rate cut rewards companies whether they create jobs or kill them. The primary sector of the Canadian economy is increasingly in the hands of off-shore investors, who take the profits and jobs elsewhere. That’s global capitalism, but we don’t need to reward it. We can target and reward the firms that put their capital to work in Canada, creating jobs and value-added enterprises.

Abbotsford NDP Candidate David Murray with Ed Broadbent at Halifax convention

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