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6- The Oakville Beaver Weekend, Saturday April 12, 2008 www.oakvillebeaver.com The Oakville Beaver 467 Speers Rd., Oakville Ont. L6K 3S4 (905) 845-3824 Fax: 337-5567 Classified Advertising: 905-632-4440 Circulation: 845-9742 The Oakville Beaver is a member of the Ontario Press Council. The council is located at 80 Gould St., Suite 206, Toronto, Ont., M5B 2M7. Phone (416) 340-1981. Advertising is accepted on the condition that, in the event of a typographical error, that portion of advertising space occupied by the erroneous item, together with a reasonable allowance for signature, will not be charged for, but the balance of the advertisement will be paid for at the applicable rate.The publisher reserves the right to categorize advertisements or decline. Editorial and advertising content of the Oakville Beaver is protected by copyright. Unauthorized use is prohibited. Commentary NEIL OLIVER Publisher DAVID HARVEY General Manager JILL DAVIS Editor in Chief ROD JERRED Managing Editor DANIEL BAIRD Advertising Director RIZIERO VERTOLLI Photography Director SANDY PARE Business Manager Metroland Media Group Ltd. includes: Ajax/Pickering News Advertiser, Alliston Herald/Courier, Arthur Enterprise News, Barrie Advance, Caledon Enterprise, Brampton Guardian, Burlington Post, Burlington Shopping News, City Parent, Collingwood/Wasaga Connection, East York Mirror, Erin Advocate/Country Routes, Etobicoke Guardian, Flamborough Review, Georgetown Independent/Acton Free Press, Harriston Review, Huronia Business Times, Lindsay This Week, Markham Economist & Sun, Midland/Penetanguishine Mirror, Milton MARK DILLS Director of Production MANUEL GARCIA Production Manager CHARLENE HALL Director of Distribution ALEXANDRIA ANCHOR Circ. Manager WEBSITE oakvil ebeaver.com The Oakville Beaver is a division of Guest Columnist Ontario needs to be business friendly Ted Chudleigh, MPP Halton ntario is slipping closer and closer to have-not status in Canada. It seems impossible, but for the first Ted Chudleigh time Ontario is on the verge of receiving transfer payments from other provinces. The Liberals are ideologically frozen into inaction on Ontario's economic front. Despite having the highest business taxes in North America, the McGuinty Liberals cannot see that high taxes drive business away. Despite the evidence, they do not believe that cutting taxes generates more revenue from increased economic activity. Instead, the Liberals will try Bob Rae's tactic and attempt to spend their way out of a recession. The centerpiece of their budget is to spend money on infrastructure and retraining programs. While the infrastructure will at least provide a tangible benefit to Ontario taxpayers, the retraining programs will do nothing but train displaced Ontario workers for jobs in Alberta. Our economy is in real danger. Outside pressures are huge and stacked against us. Standing firm on high business taxes simply adds one more negative to an already difficult situation. The Liberal budget is razor thin. Everything has to come up roses if Ontario is going to avoid a deficit. The Liberals have projected a small surplus but they have very little wiggle room. Their contingency fund is a $600 million surplus on a budget of $96.9 billion. They have increased projected revenues, which are under threat as taxpayers are still losing manufacturing jobs. Their assumptions underlying the budget, among them the price of oil, interest rates, and an expansion of economic growth, are very optimistic. If any one of these assumptions fails to play out as predicted the budget will likely drift into deficit. If they all fail, the pain will be tremendous. This budget shows the drift of Liberal policy. We need to be fixing those problems which have led us to the brink of economic chaos. Putting bandages on the wounds will not cure the disease. Another 20,000 manufacturing jobs left Ontario last month, driving losses to 174,000 since 2005. More than 71,000 people left Ontario for other provinces ­ because they can't get work here. These former taxpayers are no longer contributing to Ontario tax revenues. People are voting with their feet. That's a damning indictment of our economic prospects. Four other Canadian provinces have dropped their business taxes in the past two years ­ they are all blessed with strong economies as a result. Ontario is projected to have the weakest economic growth in Canada for the third year in a row. On top of the problem of high business taxes is the perception that Ontario is antibusiness. Those perceptions take a long time to change. Even if the McGuinty Liberals saw the light, they simply cannot flip the switch and power our economy ­ their actions have eroded any trust that Ontario will maintain a business friendly environment. The raw budget numbers are a bit frightening. The Liberals project revenues of $96.9 billion, an increase of 41 per cent since 2003. It also projects an increase in program spending of $28.2 billion since 2003, an increase of 48 per cent. Projecting higher tax revenue doesn't ensure you will receive it. Projecting increased spending doesn't guarantee there will be money available to spend. We are at the top of an untested roller coaster about to tip us over the edge. IAN OLIVER Group Publisher Media Group Ltd. Canadian Champion, Milton Shopping News, Mississauga Business Times, Mississauga News, Napanee Guide, Newmarket/Aurora EraBanner, Northumberland News, North York Mirror, Oakville Beaver, Oakville Shopping News, Oldtimers Hockey News, Orillia Today, Oshawa/Whitby/Clarington Port Perry This Week, Owen Sound Tribune, Palmerston Observer, Peterborough This Week, Picton County Guide, Richmond Hill/Thornhill/Vaughan Liberal, Scarborough Mirror, Stouffville/Uxbridge Tribune, Forever Young, City of York Guardian RECOGNIZED FOR EXCELLENCE BY: Ontario Community Newspapers Association Canadian Community Newspapers Association Suburban Newspapers of America O THE OAKVILLE BEAVER IS PROUD OFFICIAL MEDIA SPONSOR FOR: United Way of Oakville TV AUCTION Watching a winter wonderland become a watery wetland H ere in the country, spring has finally sprung. And here in the wetlands, winter has turned to water. To be honest, we were beginning to think that spring would never arrive. Despite the calendar's promising proclamation that spring had indeed sprung, we continued soldiering on in the harsh grip of an endless winter. Temperatures remained below seasonal, and snow ­ mountains of snow -- remained everywhere. Certainly there were typical signs of imminent spring blooming all around us. My wife's horses were acting goofy with spring fever. The dogs were shedding like crazy (you could vacuum daily and still not keep up with the fallen hair). Roaming packs of brightly attired cyclists ­ not seen since autumn -- were once again clogging (and, in some cases, hogging) the side roads. And, a sure sign of spring up here in the middle of nowhere, we noticed a sad spike in the amount of raccoon road kill, each day bringing a few more masked fatalities. Still, we remained reluctant to put away the cross-country skis for the season, cynically assuming another belated blast of snow was surely around the corner. Two years ago we were golfing ­ comfortably, in t-shirts -- in mid-April. This year it was beginning to look like golf courses would still have banks of snow in mid-April, and if you wanted to slice without sleeves you were going to have to follow the fugitive sun and fly south. Finally, last weekend, a ray of hope dawned as the weather slowly turned: the sun shone brightly in an assure sky, a breeze blew that actually felt kind of, well, warm and welcoming. People swarmed out of their houses, shedding parkas and tossing off toques, having survived hiberAndy Juniper nation hell. Driving to town in the Jeep ­ sunroof gloriously peeled back ­ I threw onto the CD player that eternal ode to spring, Here Comes The Sun. "Mmmm," our darling daughter intoned approvingly, from the backseat, "this sounds like the Beatles." These days everything sounds like the Beatles to her discerning ears. Even the Beatles. Of course, after a few days of decent, soul-rejuvenating spring-like weather ­ a few days of sunshine and semi-warm temperatures ­ the mountains of snow began to recede and we went immediately from winter hell to water hell. Now, everywhere we look, water. More water on our property than we've ever seen, or imagined we'd ever see. Just last fall, the denizens of the wetlands were pointing bony fingers at global warming and complaining (like true Canadians) about the drought that had sucked every last drop of water out of the creek leading in to (and out of) our pond, and that had left the pond at record low levels. Now, as the snow beats a hasty retreat and the spring rains pound down on a frequent basis, the creek is overflowing, the pond is at a record high level, and the words global warming are on nobody's lips. Our laneway's a potholed mud bath (a muddy moonscape). Our neighbour's backyard is completely submerged. Ducks are flapping around in our yard. Seriously: as I write, ducks are flapping around where dry land is supposed to be, where grass should be budding. Each time the dogs go out for a romp around the property, they come back looking and smelling like they've gone for a swim in a swamp. Here in the country, spring has finally sprung. Here in the wetlands, winter has turned to water. And here in the middle of nowhere we've got a whole new set of things to complain about ­ enough stuff to keep us bitchin' and moanin' until summer when the heat gets too hot to handle, the humidity becomes unbearable, and mosquitoes the size of deer flies rise up from the swamps. Andy Juniper can be visited at his Web site, www.strangledeggs.com, or contacted at ajuniper@strangledeggs.com