In his letter of July 15, Clifford Roulston asked some very interesting questions and I, for one, would suggest some of the reasons for the decline in our country’s overall wellbeing: Mergers and acquisitions, leading to job loss and often foreign ownership (profits go to the home country). Sale, hollowing out and privatization of valuable public assets; privatization most often leads to lower wages and, therefore, diminished purchasing power of the working public and, in the end, less tax revenue. Low royalties and exploitation fees for our natural resources. Weak regulations to protect the environment; while approximately 90 per cent of fish farms are foreign-owned, these corporations do not obey their home countries’ regulations in Canada. Mega-stores hurt small businesses. Tax evasion by big corporations. Tax cuts for very profitable corporations and often extremely high compensation for CEOs. Distortion of the housing market through the investment of, for example, Hong Kong money in the real estate market. This, of course, drove up and is still driving up the price of homes which less and less ordinary Canadians can afford to buy.
The points I made are only superficial ones and would need to be elaborated on and defined much more thoroughly.
Roberta Boss, Chilliwack