I was a bit mystified by the March 31 Yukonomist column in your newspaper. The column starts out proposing a report card grading system for the new government’s first budget. This system begins by focusing on balancing the books and avoiding or minimizing any deficit. This seems sound.
The column then noted that the previous government spent down the substantial “rainy day fund” and government cuts would be necessary. Oddly, it then suggests that there should be “broad-based tax cuts” making a deficit more likely. With all the benefits we receive including large tax cuts from the northern allowance and huge transfers from Ottawa, why should we have further tax cuts? This seems much more like ideology than economics.
Then there is the suggestion that there should be exemptions to the very modest carbon price being proposed. If the point of the carbon price is to begin to internalize the impact of burning fossil fuels, why suggest exemptions for air travel which has an exceptionally large carbon footprint? And if the government starts out handing out exemptions right away, where will they stop without undermining the entire point of carbon pricing?
Stuart Clark
Whitehorse