Minister of Revenue John Wilkinson is seeing some encouraging signs in the economy.
At a recent press conference here, the Perth-Wellington MPP said “If there’s one thing we know, it is that all recessions end; the question is how fast.”
He said there are some encouraging signs the storm is passing.
“That’s not to say that it isn’t difficult for a lot of people.”
Wilkinson said, “There are literally hundreds of thousands of people who have lost their jobs through no fault of their own, but because of this global recession. We do have areas of the province which are faring better than others. Fortunately, in our riding, we have some areas of real growth … That’s not the case right across the province,” he said.
He said that is the major reason the province has embarked on a major reform of its tax system – the largest such reform in the past 40 years.
“We’re doing two things at the same time.”
He cited the harmonization of the provincial sales tax with the GST so there is just one tax, which he called, “the most efficient sales tax.”
Money raised will permanently reduce taxes for people in business, he said.
He said a recent report from the University of Calgary predicted reform will result in increased incomes of as much as 8.8% and $47-billion more investment and 591,000 more jobs.
“So the government knows the best way to slay the deficit is to get the province back to work.”
He added, “Tax reform is always controversial, because it has to do with taxes and it has to do with change – two things people are obviously going to be concerned about.”
He said the tax was the single most important thing the province can do to affect the medium to long term to have an even stronger Ontario.
