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Letter: Company moves jobs out of BC but expects tax breaks to continue

B.C. loses the jobs and they [corporations] still think we should keep the trough full for them.

To the editor:

I noticed in your article in regard to Agility Fuel Systems laying off of 65 manufacturing jobs [Kelowna Loses 65 Jobs Due To Weak Oil Prices, Oct. 28 Kelowna Capital News], that no question was raised about the obvious abuse involved in the company moving their manufacturing jobs out of the country and still thinking that the Canadian taxpayer should fund their research and development.

Exactly what benefit does the Canadian public receive from enabling this corporation to research more efficacies so that they can then cut some of the cheaper workers in their new location?

I know we grant all kinds of tax breaks to the corporate world, they obviously need them to keep paying their CEOs their outrageous salaries, but when does it stop? The big lumber corporations have done away with 20,000 jobs in B.C in logging and milling on the coast, preferring to ship raw logs to Asia or the U.S.A. where labor is cheaper. This has improved the profit of these companies immensely, so why is the provincial government still holding the stumpage rate at next to nothing, giving tax breaks to build roads etc.? B.C. loses the jobs and they still think we should keep the trough full for them.

I think if a company requires ongoing support from the public that company shouldn’t be in business.

We need government to learn how to just say no to hand-outs to the multi-nationals.

Larry Calvin, Kelowna