I was excited. The Globe and Mail had agreed to publish my op ed. It would ‘go live’ at 10 am.

I checked my phone every 15 seconds.

What did they edit?

What did they cut?

Did it still make sense?

At 10:01, my heart sank.

The editors had added one lethal sentence. Their edit left the reader thinking about doctors’ incomes instead of patient care.  Precisely what the government wanted, and exactly what I wanted to avoid.

The whole point was to show how Morneau’s tax would hurt patients.

I asked them to remove their sentence. They refused.

Here’s the full piece, with their sentence in italics. Let me know what you think: Did their edit ruin the message? Continue reading “Morneau’s proposed tax changes negatively impact patients”

I wrote a blog about intimidation versus straight talk today, but I was too intimidated to post it. So, I’ll save it for sometime in the spring.

On a safer topic, finance minister Bill Morneau has sparked outrage in the business community.

He plans to hit small businesses with an over 30% tax hike. Morneau says that incorporated small businesses are no different than a salaried employee.

Tim Paziuk wrote a great list that shows how Morneau is wrong.

Paziuk is an accountant specializing in Canadian professional corporations. His book on corporations was invaluable, when I was setting up my own corp.

The only thing I can add to Tim’s list is that corporations have a greater burden of accessing financing and complying with regulations.

Incorporated vs. Salaried

Morneau starts his dreaded tax proposal by asking us to imagine an incorporated person and her salaried neighbour. Morneau makes a dishonest comparison, and Paziuk shows why below. Continue reading “Incorporated vs. Salaried”

Hurricane Katrina demolished New Orleans on August 29, 2005. Katrina killed almost 1,500 people and cost $70 billion to clean up.

People knew it was coming. They were told to evacuate. City planners had warned of something like Katrina for years.

Katrina was the surprise everyone expected but no one wanted to believe.

Canadian healthcare is not well. Sick babies cannot fit into overstuffed NICUs. Young people die for lack of beds. These stories aren’t news anymore.

A journalist from a National paper told me, “I need something new to say. My editor won’t publish without a new angle. People are tired of hearing the same thing about hospital overcrowding.”

Last week, I asked an MP, “What do you think about the new tax changes?” He gave a long defence of Morneau’s tax grab on small businesses. He sliced up all the arguments that he expected I would raise.

Then, he let me ask some questions: Continue reading “Neonatal ICU Crisis: Unusual or Inevitable?”