Saskatchewan Economic Priorities: Education, then Lower Taxes, and not more Phoney Research |
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Nipawin - July 11, 2000 - By: Mario deSantis and reviewed by James deSantis | |
assessing our economic and social performance |
We must be careful about being complacent and rejoice to the news that Canada is again number |
one in standard of living(1) after being ranked 30 with respect to its health care system(2). The | |
most important consideration in assessing our economic and social performance doesn't come | |
from the ranking of our status by Statistics Canada nor from the United Nations; we must look | |
at ourselves in the mirror and we will find the answer, that is what we need is to put more value to | |
our common sense and less value to the ongoing reductionist statistics of economic performance. | |
economic |
Canada's real personal income has decreased by 5% i n the last 10 years, while the United States' |
real personal income has increased by 13% (3). Today, the gap between the Canadian and US | |
personal income is some US$6,000 (CND$9,000) and therefore we must recognize that this | |
economic under achievement is mainly the result of regressive and outdated economic policies | |
of our federal and provincial governments. And our comparative under achievement doesn't limit | |
to the US, in fact France has been growing three times faster, Norway six times faster and Ireland | |
eighteen times faster. | |
Ireland |
Ireland has become the fastest growing economy in Europe and its social and economic policies |
are today taken as an example to follow by any other country. Lower taxes, foreign investments, | |
research and education have been the main strategic componen ts for the economic growth of | |
Ireland(4). | |
basic |
In Canada , we have always pursued economic growth by attracting foreign capital, and therefore |
in the last budget an effort was put to improve our higher educational system by announcing the | |
creation of 2,000 research chairs. In accordance to many politicians and economists what is left is | |
to pursue the cutting of personal and corporate taxes. The creation of 2000 research chairs at the | |
expense of improving the basic education of our youth is a debatable economic decision, and if we | |
consider Ireland, we must point out that this country began to pour money into basic education in | |
the 60's and only after that they put money into research and development. | |
spur |
If we refer to Saskatchewan, the cutting of personal or corporate taxes will not do, by itself, the trick |
to spur economic growth, especially so when one considers the tremendous and futile funding in | |
research(5) at the expense of providing better education for our young children and our university | |
graduates(6). | |
aboriginal |
Most of our aboriginal people live in poverty, and their percentage of the population is expected to |
rise from the present 14% to 45% by the year 2045 and unless we focus on the needs of these | |
people we will become a socially bankrupt province. Eric Cline, Minister of Finance for | |
Saskatchewan, has been trumpeting economic growth for the last nine years(7), yet our real | |
economic growth has been decreasing and deteriorating, and our a boriginal people are continuing | |
to suffer in silence the consequences of these governmental policies. The highest economic priority | |
of this province is education, then lower taxes , and certainly not the phoney research presently | |
carried out by our universities. | |
----------References and Endnotes: | |
CANADA'S ECONOMY IN THE NEWSPAPERS, by Brian K. MacLea n, MacLean's Economic Policy Page http://www.geocities.com/brian79/macecon.html | |
Articles by Mario deSantis published by Ensign http://www .ftlcomm.com/ensign/authors/desantisNG.html | |
Canada's No. 1, United Nations says, Steven Edwards, National Post, June 29, 2000 | |
The Rubbish of the WHO's Ranking and Saskatchewan Health, by Mario deSantis, June 25, 2000 | |
CANADA'S STANDARD OF LIVING: WHY DO WE LAG BEHIND THE U.S.? Productivity is only part of the problem, Marc LE9vesque, Ruth Getter, May 26, 1999, Toronto Dominion Bank http://www.tdbank.ca/tdeconomics/marketanalysis/current/ml0526.htm | |
It takes more than a simple tax cut and the luck of the Irish, Madelaine Drohan, Globe and Mail, July 4, 2000 | |
Research, Reputations and Responsibility, by Timothy Shire, July 2, 2000 | |
Honourable Eric Cline has not balanced the budget yet, he forgot our school-children, by Mario deSantis, April 2, 2000 | |
Budget Address: A Plan forGrowth and Opportunity, Honourable Eric Cline, Minister of Finance, Government of Saskatchewan, March, 2000 http://www.gov.sk.ca/finance/budget/budget00/2000papers.htm |