If it takes the Christmas season for Dalton McGuinty to deliver tax relief to Ontarions, then we should either move Christmas to March so he can do it every year, or move the budget to every December. When Mr. McGuinty delivered his economic update, despite a few lumps of coal in the mix, he delivered some gifts that the economy has required for years.

During the recent provincial election Premier McGuinty repeatedly refused to offer tax relief. And earlier in the year when delivering the 2007 budget he grouchily dismissed tax cuts as 'trinkets and baubles'. So, it is a pleasant surprise to see him change from tax Grinch to tax Santa with his announcements of modest tax relief for businesses. While it would be better for the economy to have gone further, the announced capital tax elimination for manufacturers and resource firms and the partial reductions for other firms are tax changes the Canadian Taxpayers Federation and industry have long been calling for.

These changes will help an Ontario business sector struggling to respond to high taxation a high dollar. There is a further announcement that the province will mirror the federal government's excellent provision for the 50% accelerated write-off for manufacturing and processing equipment and machinery. Mr. McGuinty calls on the federal government to extend this program to the end of 2012. This is an excellent suggestion the feds ought to implement.

While the tax reduction measures for business are a welcome change of direction, much work remains to be done on the personal tax front as well. This is due in great part because government revenues and spending have ballooned at the expense of taxpaying businesses and individual tax filers. It is time to put an end to this trend.

When Mr. McGuinty and the Liberals came in to power, total tax revenue for 2004 was $49.1 billion in Ontario. Four years later it has ballooned to $64.3 billion. Total tax revenue has increased by 31% in four years ($15.2 billion). This is three times the rate of inflation. Mr. McGuinty's government took $23.7 billion from taxpayers in personal income tax in 06-07. This is up from $18.3 billion from 03-04: also a gain of 30%. Business tax revenue was up 14% over the same period.

The government reiterated its commitment to spend billions of dollars on a myriad of corporate welfare schemes to bail out failing companies like those in forestry, the auto sector, and to fund startups through the venture capital program. Calls by Mr. McGuinty for the federal government to match this corporate welfare spending are very misguided. These funds would be better applied through broad-based personal and business tax relief. This would more fairly help to reduce the costs to business and the cost of living in Ontario.

With the small package of tax reductions announced in the economic statement for businesses Mr. McGuinty is flirting, for the first time, with real meaningful tax relief. Taxpayers can only hope he learns that it is better to give tax relief like Santa than to tax and spend like Scrooge.