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These explanations are all very interesting, but the reality is that any good business person must decide when to invest. The conditions have been far from fav
by dade_ 3y ago
These explanations are all very interesting, but the reality is that any good business person must decide when to invest. The conditions have been far from favourable for years in Canada. Real estate is simply too expensive. Sure commercial real estate for the plant or office or whatever facility you need is outrageously expensive, but then, when you wanted to hire somebody or try, they need to pay rent or a mortgage. People aren’t demanding outrageous wages because they suddenly think they’re worth it. They just know how expensive it is to pay the bills and groceries.
Government policy, both the conservatives and the liberals, are very cosy to large corporations. Most of their announcements, that supposedly help small businesses are simply far out of reach due to requirements for revenue or number of employees, and is essentially corporate welfare. The BDC and EDC are a joke, both crown corporations run by people very disconnected from any sort of reality.
Of course it was driven by interest rates, but the insidious thing about interest rate is it allows zombie corporations. These organizations that should’ve gone out of business being acquired or shut down, but because of their size and revenue were able to continue to borrow more and more and more money at extremely low interest rates. of course it’s coming to an end now as financial reality hits. Many of these companies are forced to cut, but they were actually hopelessly dysfunctional so over time though finally either just be bought or go to business.
all of this to say, the last 20 years has been a terrible time to start a business in Canada but a lot of markers are indicating things could be getting better soon. While it may be good for somebody starting a business isn’t good for necessarily the average person.
anyway, the thing I find absolutely laughable is that we need more education for entrepreneurs. The funniest thing I’ve read all year. there is no education that will make someone an entrepreneur, but someone may learn enough to be scarred out of taking the plunge.
finally, the idea that there’s a single definition of Canadians is completely stupid and misinformed. culture varies dramatically from coast to coast and from the south to the north. if someone thinks that nobody wants to work, or nobody wants to make money, it speaks about the people that they associate with not the country they live in. I think that is true most anywhere.
- cmrdporcupine 3y agoYours is the most reasoned comment here, thank you. And you're right to point the finger at both major parties. While I agree that there's no single definition of Canadian, I do think there's a particular Canadian sickness that seems to think that policy that benefits and protects existing established interests is good policy. Example: local rural zoning laws here in Hamilton area were being revisited some years ago. I live on a small farm so went to the sessions and read the documents, etc. And I have an interest in the wine industry, so noticed that in the bylaws they went out of their way to explicitly forbid winery development in any area but an area east of the city (towards Niagara.) Why? When I asked the zoning officer at a public meeting, she just stared at me blankly: "Because that's where the wineries already are." She wasn't corrupt. She wasn't stupid. She didn't care about the issue. But the thought that you might want to craft regulation in such a way to leave things open for new entrants and possibilities was ... confusing to her. But why would you close off a whole agricultural area to new developments like that? I don't get the mindset, but I see it all the time. Maybe because we're so used to being squashed by the US that we feel we have to protect the successes that we have? Bizarrely though we have very intense internal protectionism. I see examples of this all over the place. From Alberta's recent moves against the burgeoning renewable energy sector, to Ontario wine regulations, to the way the telecomms sector is run nationally, to the way grants and incubators etc are set up.