Tuesday, July 22, 2008

Hey Prentice: Don't let it burn a hole in your pocket


Wow!. $4.25 billion from the wireless spectrum auction. Yippee!

That’s almost enough to cover 5 years of foregone taxes from the LBO of BCE! Or 2 years of foregone taxes from the government induced income trust takeovers to date.

Maybe the CONs can follow the Green’s proposal. Instead of stopping the LBO of BCE to fully fund the RESP as the Greens proposed, the Cons can use these proceeds to help parents pay for their childrens’ university education for the next five years. Maybe that way, some brighter kids can start entering law school and we can stop cranking out Jim Flaherty’s and Jim Prentice’s. You know what they say about law schools: Garbage in Garbage out.




Gov't still to decide what to do with $4.25B haul from spectrum auction: Prentice


50 minutes ago
EDMONTON — Industry Minister Jim Prentice says the federal government has yet to decide what to do with a $4.25-billion windfall from the just-completed wireless spectrum auction.
He says Finance Minister Jim Flaherty has indicated that paying down the national debt and reducing taxes are Ottawa's priorities.
Prentice says the sale of 105 megahertz of wireless spectrum was a tremendous success and will change the country's cellphone industry forever.
He says the auction was conducted to create more competition in the cellphone industry so that services to Canadians will improve and costs will come down.
Companies that bought spectrum are likely to put it to use and not hoard it, says Prentice, because the licences only cover a 10-year period.

7 comments:

Anonymous said...

What are you nattering about? Talk about an inane post.

Anonymous said...

Prentice is still arguing that this auction will benefit competition and the consumers. This come just after he extracted $4.2 billion
from telecom companies that will pass the cost on to consumers plus interest for those companies that had to borrow the money to pay for the licences.
We already have some of the highest cost in the telecom sector and this will only make things worse. If Prentice had really wanted to enhance competition he should have done like Finland and issue licences virtually for free. There is absolutely no reason why the governemnt should be in the business of selling licences.
YF

Anonymous said...

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Former life long conservative said...

As I understand it 75% of this money came from Mr. Rogers, Telus and BCE. Did these 3 really spend this money so that they could give us better service and lower prices????

I don't think so!!! These 3 paid the gov't (you and me) this money so that they can continue to overcharge you and me (the gov't). Hey professor Dion this is a real green issue that you should get on. It is a green issue that affects every voting aged Canadian I know every month!!!!

Dr Mike said...

anonymous said...
What are you nattering about? Talk about an inane post.

July 22, 2008 1:06 PM

Maybe you could explain what you mean by this--lacking in substance????

Mr Flaherty is know for his spending ways here in Ontario--he left us with a 5.6 billion dollar deficit after he had told us he was running in the black.

I had learned after his removal that he had planned on using the proceeds from the sale of the government run Liquor stores in Ontario to private interests to overcome this deficit--but he ran out of time first.

He has a history of mismanagement--he sold off Ontario Hydro but kept the debt portion that still continues to haunt us on every bill.

So what he would do with this new gain is anybody`s guess.

I just doubt that he has enough going for him to use it properly.

Dr Mike Popovich.

Anonymous said...

I'm sure these funds will end up in general revenue to cover for the current account deficit they are trying to hide. Or, maybe they'll fund some of the promises the Cons are currently making across Canada. Hey - maybe they'll actually send that cheque to Ontario municipalities that were promised infrastructure funds...

JW

Anonymous said...

JW said:

"Hey - maybe they'll actually send that cheque to Ontario municipalities that were promised infrastructure funds..."


Ontario? I doubt that very much. Don’t ya know? Ontario is the last place in Canada to invest. Now Harper has a chance to prove it.

Brent Fullard