jdobbin

It makes you wonder about the GST reductiion by the Conservatives. While popular, it is no replacement for income tax cuts.

So your solution is to eliminate all immigration?

What is the solution for rural Ontario then with a demographic that sees their population decline to ghost town status?

LinkOf the roughly 4,500 immigrants to Manitoba, about 1500 were accepted as "provincial nominees" (500 as main applicant and 1000 as dependents). This is peanuts. If any province were to try to expand such a programme, immigrants would just lie on their application form and then go elsewhere on arrival. And I'd still be curious to see residency stats about these 1500 people several years from now. Those were 2002 results which indeed were pitiful. The nominee program was in its infancy in the province. By 2003, there was a 40% increase from the previous year and Manitoba is trying to get the numbers up to 10,000 a year. Manitoba takes in 70% of provincial nominees. That is what's crazy. Other provinces could take in a lot more as they direct immigrants to where jobs and communities await them. The tracking of nominees is being done in the lastest statistics report for Manitoba but the preliminary results is that retention from 1998 on has been excellent. It is one reason why business and communties want to increase numbers. And even if nominees leave, they are more likely to go to Alberta rather than Ontario if statistics on overall numbers are to be believed. And Alberta is desperate for workers.

I'd be surprised at how many of them leave within five years. The largest influx have been German speaking immigrants who settle in prosperous Mennonite territory where there are other German speakers. They have jobs and larger than average families. It is perfect place for them. There has been an influx of Filipinos sponsored in as well. They are filling jobs and have a large community to settle it. There have been British farmers being sponsored in. All of these immigrants have communities working to settle them in, train them and keep them in the community. It is not with new immigrants that Manitoba has a problem maintaining its population. It is with the new grad who was born in Canada. They find the lure of Toronto and Calgary hard to resist.

There are controls. The point system makes it easier for immigrants to move to places outside major cities. The problem is that provinces have to be involved through the provincial nominee program to get them jobs and settle them into communities. It is working in some other provinces already. Is Ontario doing that or is it their goal to grow Toronto? Immigrants can move once they have come to Canada, just like other immigrants but generally when they have a job within a community, they sponsor their families to that community. Historically, that is how various areas of the country have grown. Rural Ontario is dying. Time for Ontario to help facilitate immigration into those areas with the help of those communities.

It's in this very website's information: http://www.mapleleafweb.com/features/gener...-provinces.html Once again, has Ontario asked the federal government to assist in ensuring Toronto is not swamped? Please provide links.

How will he make waiting lists disappear?

Manitoba is doing a fine job of bringing in new immigrants at the moment. We could use more but we need to press the federal government to expedite provincial nominee candidates. Ontario has been trying to supersize Toronto for a long time now. Three different political parties have been in power over the last few decades in the province. Blame them for the liveable condiiton of Toronto.

There are federal controls. Provinces can work with the federal government to get the immigrants they want. Has Ontario been doing that?

It is hard to say with every Congressional seat up for grabs and a third of the Senate what the local issues are. I don't know that you can solely say a direction-less party. How do we know that the guy running for the Democrats in the so and so district is not an ace candidate who will *bring* new ideas to the Democrats? There may be some protest aspect of the vote but there always is that sort of thing in an election with an unpopular government. Change often brings in the new leadership. At the moment, even the Conservative movement is upset at Bush for a variety of things.

I think restraint is needed there. I really really really doubt Iran had anything to do with this whole showdown. They have only gave support to Syria if they have been attacked. Iran will not make a push. They are just saying on the news now that Iranian troops are being seen with Hezbolla. If this is the case, then Iran most likely will be targeted.

There are a lot of Iraqi veterans running for the Democrats this election. It is a little hard to accuse them of being yellow bellied cowards.

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/13875121/ It has been reported that Iranian soldiers fired the missile in Lebanon that killed Israeli sailors. I think we can expect an attack on Iran in the next two days.

You make a good point. Saskatchewan, Manitoba and Alberta would all benefit from more immigration. Alberta is already doing well when it comes to interprovincial migration but we are all in desperate need to fill open jobs in our provinces. Toronto may indeed be having problems adjusting to its huge increase of immigrants. But the best thing for new arrivals is to have a job to work at.

Slashing of taxes does raise revenues but the idea that they can be done without slashing services is false. The United States slashed taxes, raised revenues but their deficit has climbed since Bush came to office. Most economists, if not all, have said it is because services were not slashed as well. Manitoba could cut services but as I mentioned, Manitoba still couldn't compete with Alberta for a lower tax regime. And most likely what would happen is that a huge deificit would emerge even at running bare bones operations. Quite frankly, no one in Canada can compete with Alberta's lower taxes. No one has the oil revenues that Alberta has to make a provincial sales tax disappear. I didn't assess blame for Manitoba's being a 'have not" province, I just indicated that there were external forces that competed when it came to taxation and industry. No matter how low the tax goes in Manitoba, Alberta could go one better. In fact, if there was *no* tax in Manitoba, Alberta would still have the revenue to *pay* its citizens and businesses to stay. Equalization payments exist within a federation to ensure that one region doesn't fall to unacceptable levels of service than another area. I know some people have argued that if they didn't exist, Manitobans could simply abandon the province and leave for Alberta. But the government of Canada knows that is not a benefit to the federation. Alberta itself was a long time recipient of equalization payments. Equalization was needed to ensure services were comparable to other provinces. And when oil was discovered, Alberta was well positioned with infrastructure and people to take advantage of it. The relevance of the United States example is that the federal government there knows that some states cannot expect to build infrastructure of the quality that other states could do on their own. However, the U.S. government knows that for the United States to be competitive, it has to ensure parity for all states for a service such as interstate highways. That is why, the federal government takes responsibility for transfering money to all 50 states for this specific task. It is a form of equalization. There are other similar programs like this in the United States. It is one of the reasons why the U.S. is a huge economic success. Development there has been a 50 state effort. Equalization is not inexplicable. It doesn't mean the recipients are basket cases. It doesn't mean that provinces that have never received equalization are superior (would that mean Ontario was better than Alberta?) It simply means the federal government has an interest in ensuring that certain parts of the country do not fall below national standards of service. Can the present government get Manitoba to a "have" status? Not likely. They haven't put Manitoba into a deficit but they are tired and the innovations needed increase revenues substantially just aren't there. Can a new government do it? I have no idea. The Conservatives just got a new leader but he is untested and there is no platform yet. I think the big question is can business in Manitoba step up to the plate? They cannot routinely blame government for their lack of investment. Sometimes businesses have to forge ahead on their own and create the conditions for their own success. There has been too little of this in Manitoba. Hydro might ultimately be where Manitoba royalities comes from. There is a steady royalty now that the government gets from Hydro. The north is still untapped and Ontario is dying for energy. There are a number of stumbling blocks, not the least is the lack of high power transmission lines to Ontario. That would cost $1 billion. If it gets done, it could be the start a continuing royalty stream for the province for decades to come. All that is long term though. In the short term, Manitoba has to make sure it doesn't go into deficit and that it build its success from people rather than resources.

It is an interesting viewpoint. It just means that Ontario needs to take better control of its immigration. Why settle people just in Toronto? Ontario cannot 'settle" people anywhere, nor can Canada, really. People will settle where they want, and usually they want to settle among their own kind. As the article says, even when they settle elsewhere, they are inevitably drawn to the big cities filled with not just communities full of people "like them" but all the other stuff big cities draw people with, so they move. Nor will our constitution allow any restrictions on mobility rights among "canadians". You might bring them in to Kenora, and they might live there a few years, then they'll probably pack up and move to Toronto. A provincial nominee program matched immigarents to jobs. There will always be movement but for smalelr communities, this nomiinee program can be a lifeline. Ontario really hasn't gone to as great an effort to place people in such a place as say, Kenora. There are job there wanting for lack of workers.

A lot of people who don't hold a grudge say that the price of skilled construction labour has risen at a faster than expected rate across the country and especially in the west. In any case, they've already announced they won't be scaling back the project. They found some efficiencies and won't need to rebuild some of the bridges. That's because the federal government kicked in the promised money that the Liberals first put on the table. There are other phases to this as well and hopefully, funding from all levels of government will kick in. I'd still like an auditor-general's report on this because of the money and management involved. Are the cost overruns just because of increased labour and supply prices or was the contract and tendering not up to snuff?

I guess if most of the Muslim world can believe that no Muslim extremist was involved in the attacks, then North Americans can believe it too. Given that the Bush administration can barely keep a leak from any part of its operations from from making the New York Times, it seems unlikely that they could keep one where Bush planned and executed an attack on the World Trade Center.

You think they should have had more control over the economy? A lot of the contracters have said the major cause of cost overruns is a master labour agreement.

This is another area where the province has let costs get out of control. And to top it off, Doer said that they might do an incomplete job because of shortfalls in financing. That will be cold comfort when Manitoba has a flood that makes 1997 look small.

So Harper is really a Liberal?

It is an interesting viewpoint. It just means that Ontario needs to take better control of its immigration. Why settle people just in Toronto? If they have a provincial nominee program in place, they can have communities across Ontario that need workers match up with immigrants wanting to come to Canada. Manitoba has done very well by this program. Also, Alberta could make use of these new immigrants coming in. They just need to find them a place to live.

An Israeli ship has just been by a rocket from Lebanon. Last word was that it was ablaze off the coast. I don't know about any of you but I am getting a bit nervous as to how far this is going to go.

Natives who live in the city or off reserve pay taxes right along with everyone else. Tax exempt status on reserves hasn't been the economic growth driver that some would believe.