Eagle Quest Properties

Ontario Works caseloads are growing as employment insurance benefits run out for those who were laid off earlier this year.

“We’re concerned about the fall when people who were laid off in March exhaust their employment insurance benefits,” said Pat Ranford, manager of the Ontario Works division of the Haldimand Norfolk Health and Social Services Department.

“We always anticipate an increase from October to February.”

From March to April, Statistics Canada reported a decrease of 140 people receiving EI Regular Benefits.

The Ontario Works caseload jumped 12 cases in the same time and another 20 from April to May. They’ve seen a 19 per cent increase from June 2008 to June 2009.

via Norfolk, Haldimand brace for welfare spike – Tillsonburg News – Ontario, CA.

At the federal level, the corporate tax rate in Canada currently stands at 19%, down from 22.1% in 2007. The rate is scheduled to fall further, to 18% in 2010, 16.5% in 2011 and 15 per cent in 2012. Similar cuts are occurring at the provincial level. In Ontario, for example, the McGuinty government is planning to lower the general corporate income tax rate from 14% to 10% by 2013.

If these planned reductions are not cancelled, we should end up not only with more jobs and capital formation in the economy, but greater revenues for government programs. Lower tax rates don’t necessarily drain the public purse: the incentives to produce, invest and work can offset the lower rate and lead to greater inflows of tax dollars.

via The real stimulus | Columnists | Larry MacDonald | Canadian Business Online.