Quotes by Don Drummond

“Ontario is not growing as fast as other areas. Is it appropriate to blame that on equalization? I would say no,”

“You could take this equalization burden away from Ontario and its still going to have those dollar issues, and the commodity prices issues.”

“We dont have anything in the safety net other than welfare, which is why theres nothing else to catch them on the way down, so they end up on the welfare rolls -- which is inappropriate.”

“The harsh reality is in many instances theyre actually better off on welfare.”

“If Finance was convinced it was a problem -- and it was being driven by inadequacy of the tax system -- it should have been dealt with couple of years ago,”

“It wouldnt be unfair to say that not only is the horse out of the barn but Finance has no idea where the horse has gone.”

“We sometimes forget that the U.S. economy is a quarter of all world demand for oil, so if it slows down it should take some of the froth off the demand side.”

“Thats not to say its not worthwhile.”

“Canada has recorded a remarkably bad productivity performance. Productivity has been tepid in terms of absolute growth rates and relative to the growth and levels recorded in other major economies. If this continues it will threaten the standard of living of Canadians.”

“What Canada needs is a shift in focus away from consumption and towards savings and investment,”