2006/02/21

Canadian Council of Chief Executives want to further weaken Ottawa

After aggressively pushing deep integration with the US, the Canadian Council of Chief Executives wants to further weaken what's left of the federal government. In a new report, entitled from From Bronze to Gold,they propose that Ottawa should scrap the GST and eliminate health and social transfers to the provinces, as part of their proposal to weaken the central government.

Ostensibly the intent is part of a move to shift tax power to the provinces. Supposedly this would give premiers the surplus tax room they need to raise extra revenue on their own to replace federal health and social transfers.

The CEOs do not appear to be concerned about the threat to Ottawa's ability to maintain national standards in areas of provincial jurisdiction, including health and social programs. But that is consistent with the general thrust of their reports whose main concern seems to be anything that's good for big business.


Not surprising when you consider that the council represents 150 leading CEOs, including such influential figures as Dominic D'Alessandro of Manulife Financial, Richard George, the head of Suncor Energy Inc., and Gordon Nixon, head of the Royal Bank of Canada.

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

This is further evidence of Tom D'Aquino's obsession with making Canada a vassal of the United States. It's time for him to retire and head to the golf course.

Anonymous said...

These CEOs are hell bent on dismantling Canada as we know it. Let's hope the Liberals and NDP team up to scuttle their nonsense.

Anonymous said...

We'll be lucky if there's a Canada left if the decentralizing Conservatives get a majority in the next election. The provinces have always been greedy and only strong PMs kept them in place. Things had already started to slide with Martin. Harper will continue the trend of dancing to the CEOs tune. the only hope is if the Liberals find a strong federalist leader.