2017 may bring surprises

’Tis the Christmas season and the time to look to the New Year.
I often have made fun of our politicians, who toil on our behalf, with their Christmas “wish” lists and their resolutions for the New Year. So, too, this year, though not so much with the Christmas wish list but rather with their hopes for 2017.
Fort Frances Coun. Ken Perry did not get his train set for Christmas this year but still remains hopeful that 2017 will have the Wynne government eyeing up a windfall of money for municipalities for her and Justin’s train sets that criss-cross Ontario running through towns, cities, municipalities, and First Nations.
Just getting CN and CP to pay up their fair share of municipal taxes would reduce the transfer payments to those same towns, cities, municipalities, and First Nations.
It might go a long way toward easing the ailment brought on by the embrace that Kathleen Wynne and Dalton McGuinty offered up to “green” energy producers that now is bankrupting homeowners and small businesses across Ontario.
Even removing the provincial portion of tax that’s calculated for electrical power only has offset the last year’s increase.
To improve her government’s 15 percent approval rating, Kathleen is hoping for a miracle in 2017. It might happen, but we are more likely to see a family arrive on Mars first.
Justin Trudeau, meanwhile, now is taking a page out of the Donald Trump playbook. Just because he promised low deficits hasn’t meant his actions are following what he said.
His resolution for 2017 is to ask Canadians to forget what he said and enjoy the largesse his government is handing out.
It is unfortunate that Mr. Trudeau now finds himself caught in the same bind as his predecessor in the pipeline approval process. Even though the majority of Canadians enjoy the benefits of carbon fuels, the environmental groups he adopted during the election campaign will bring him to grief.
His resolution is to try and bring Canadians on board to these giant infrastructure projects, and get shovels in the ground as quickly as possible, to get Alberta’s energy to tide water.
What he will lose in popularity quickly will be made up in revenues for the federal government to cover the credit bills he’s racked up in his short term as prime minister.
To Trudeau’s credit, his government did a wonderful job of bringing in Syrian refugees. One might hope his resolution would be to accommodate all the groups from across Canada that raised funds and found accommodations to bring in refugees—only to discover the pace of bringing in refugees no longer was a priority with the government.
2017 may bring lots of surprises. Railway taxes could rise, hydro rates could fall in line with the rest of North America, and we could have refugee families in Fort Frances.
Pipelines would begin construction and the Keystone pipeline could get the go-ahead.