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ABM: But what would your main economic goals try to accomplish? JD: Clearly, they would include lowering taxes over the long term, and lowering the cost of doing business generally.We also like the idea of freeing up the labour market.We need to make the labour market much more responsive in this region to make it easier for business to do what business does best. This cuts to the core of another priority. We would like to see every person here become an entrepreneur if possible. And we want to focus on indigenous business. Sure, we’ll work with companies who want to move here. But, fundamentally, we believe economic growth comes from local businesses and local entrepreneurs.
ABM: What’s your view of provincial and federal government policies regarding foreign direct investment, which have been major planks of economic development for at least 20 years?
JD: Well, we believe that governments should certainly work with companies who are interested in coming here. We should certainly grease the skids for them: help them find locations; identify areas for infrastructure improvement. But if you are working with companies who are willing to move around and play the game, the chances are that they are going to pick up and leave at some point. At least if you build infrastructure for them, or educate people for them, all this is left behind.What’s more, if you are building indigenous entrepreneurs and companies, these are much less likely to pick up and leave. Eventually, they develop deep roots. I think there’s much less likelihood for a McCain Foods or an Irving company to pull up and move to California.
ABM: So, then, how do we nurture the growth of enterprising, home-grown businesses?
JD: We’d like to see a mandatory credit in high schools where you are required to learn how to set up a business.We’d also like to see the costs for setting up a small business drastically lowered. I had to learn about this first hand when I set up my own business here. I had to hire a lawyer in Toronto because it was cheaper. When you are an entrepreneur preparing to set up, there are high barriers to entry.Why not just have a flat $25 fee? Maybe, you could even do it all online.We’d like to see those programs where you teach people. But the major hurdle is making Nova Scotia and Atlantic Canada a place where companies can make money. That’s how you create prosperity. That’s how you create a virtuous cycle of further investment, capital, productivity, wage growth, job growth. By having low taxes and low costs, including low costs for infrastructure.
ABM: Let’s talk about taxes. The New Brunswick government has recently introduced a tax regime that’s quite favourable to businesses and individuals. It stops short of actually flattening taxes altogether, however. What’s your position regarding a genuine flat tax?
JD: I’ve some material that suggests that a graduated tax is actually more efficient than a flat tax. I honestly don’t know, beyond the fact that we want to see substantively lower taxes over time. One of the things about attracting businesses is creating an environment where you don’t have undue business risks – things such as deficits. A deficit is bad because you have to raise a lot of money to cover it. But it also raises the spectre of future tax hikes and future inflation, which are obviously bad for entrepreneurs looking down the road. One of the functions of government over the long run is to lower the risks to business through deficit elimination, balancing budgets, and installing a low-cost regime.
ABM: So, from your point of view, government is far too expensive – it’s far too much a burden on the region’s entrepreneurial class.
JD: We like deregulation. We like small government.
ABM: So, is this where Atlantic union fits into the bigger picture?
JD: Absolutely! It is the one concept that dove-tails nicely into everything we’ve discussed. The bottom line is that we like Atlantic union in whatever form we can get it. And just like our positions on electoral reform and political form, we’d actually be a strong advocate for this. The ideal, of course, would be political union of the four Atlantic provinces. But we should at least create an inter-provincial free trade zone. Anything in this direction is good for all of us, the public and private sectors, alike.
