Alberta
Hope is Edmonton Prospects & WCBL biggest ally these days
Until about a month ago, the Edmonton Prospects appeared on the way towards a home-run and their most successful season in the Western Canadian Baseball League (WCBL). The league itself looked a lot healthier than it has ever been.
“We were really looking forward – our 2020 roster was in good shape; we had a secure (one-year) lease on RE/MAX Field; our relationship and negotiations with the city had moved forward from what there was before.” owner-general manager Pat Cassidy
With the pending arrival of a 2021 franchise in Sylvan Lake, added to the growing optimism. Then, of course, came the coronavirus pandemic. Covid-19, halted to everything. Now, among every other endeavour in this nation, it’s like a rain delay; a really long rain delay.
For how long? That has yet to be determined. A partial answer may take shape next Tuesday after a scheduled meeting to update all league principals on any potential opening dates.
Pre-coronavirus plans called for the Prospects to open at home with two tilts during the May 24 weekend, with firework after the first game. Now? Cassidy pitched, “the most likely expectation is a delay until June 16 or later.” Another batting lineup could look like a calendar to include openers on or about Canada Day, July 1. Cassidy explained, “We won’t know until some serious ideas are raised at our meeting, a lot of things remain for us to go through.”
“Sure, we have rosters ready – at least, most of us have – but we can’t possibly know if the signed players will be able to come in. Who knows whether they will have to be isolated for a period of time after they do come in?”
All-star outfielder Travis Hunt and infielder Brendan Luther both had committed to return from last year’s roster, which survived an incredible run of bad weather before being eliminated in playoffs by the champion Okotoks Dawgs. “We have Hunt signed but we also have an agreement that he would be free to leave if the pros took him in the draft or signed him.” spit Cassidy.
Pencilled in on the pitching staff are (or were) Trever Berg and Jesse Poniewozik, who spent much of the 2019 season in the bullpen before both became essential as starters or relievers by playoff time.
Poniewozik, the young, promising Spruce Grove right-hander whose season ended when a wicked line drive hit him on the head and forced him out, for the brief remainder of the season.
Cassidy raised another very important question, surely to be considered by not just the WCBL, but all other leagues anxious to start; if you play, will they come? Will it be a full count or, “What size of crowds can we expect?
“I’m sure we all want to get going but I don’t believe we’ll find large groups of fans want to go into a ballpark and sit next to people without the six-foot separation (self-distancing).
“Questions, that’s all we’ve got so far.” Cassidy conceded.
The owner and GM competitive instincts surfaced after president Gary Hoover of the Northwoods League, which includes the Thunder Bay Border Cats and teams from North Dakota, Minnesota, Iowa, Michigan, Indiana and Illinois, confirmed that plans to open on May 26 had been scrubbed. “We don’t have (the same page),” the Prospects operator said, partly in jest, after Hoover claimed “flexibility” could be a big help in designing the Northwoods League future.
To this point, the WCBL has not been forced to adjust to the loss of the Melville Millionaires and Yorkton Cardinals, who received one-year leaves of absence to consider whether to remain in a league that has grown stronger and more competitive. “It was difficult for them,” Cassidy is not yet calling them out, “Whatever the operators decide, I wish them luck.”
As for the positive outlook from a month ago when it looked like it was going to be a homer, with the runner circling the bases? Or will it be caught for the final out at the fence? A final out, before the first pitch of the season is even thrown? Time will tell, right now we are still in the middle of a rain delay.
Read more stories on Todayville Edmonton
Alberta
Alberta government should eliminate corporate welfare to generate benefits for Albertans
From the Fraser Institute
By Spencer Gudewill and Tegan Hill
Last November, Premier Danielle Smith announced that her government will give up to $1.8 billion in subsidies to Dow Chemicals, which plans to expand a petrochemical project northeast of Edmonton. In other words, $1.8 billion in corporate welfare.
And this is just one example of corporate welfare paid for by Albertans.
According to a recent study published by the Fraser Institute, from 2007 to 2021, the latest year of available data, the Alberta government spent $31.0 billion (inflation-adjusted) on subsidies (a.k.a. corporate welfare) to select firms and businesses, purportedly to help Albertans. And this number excludes other forms of government handouts such as loan guarantees, direct investment and regulatory or tax privileges for particular firms and industries. So the total cost of corporate welfare in Alberta is likely much higher.
Why should Albertans care?
First off, there’s little evidence that corporate welfare generates widespread economic growth or jobs. In fact, evidence suggests the contrary—that subsidies result in a net loss to the economy by shifting resources to less productive sectors or locations (what economists call the “substitution effect”) and/or by keeping businesses alive that are otherwise economically unviable (i.e. “zombie companies”). This misallocation of resources leads to a less efficient, less productive and less prosperous Alberta.
And there are other costs to corporate welfare.
For example, between 2007 and 2019 (the latest year of pre-COVID data), every year on average the Alberta government spent 35 cents (out of every dollar of business income tax revenue it collected) on corporate welfare. Given that workers bear the burden of more than half of any business income tax indirectly through lower wages, if the government reduced business income taxes rather than spend money on corporate welfare, workers could benefit.
Moreover, Premier Smith failed in last month’s provincial budget to provide promised personal income tax relief and create a lower tax bracket for incomes below $60,000 to provide $760 in annual savings for Albertans (on average). But in 2019, after adjusting for inflation, the Alberta government spent $2.4 billion on corporate welfare—equivalent to $1,034 per tax filer. Clearly, instead of subsidizing select businesses, the Smith government could have kept its promise to lower personal income taxes.
Finally, there’s the Heritage Fund, which the Alberta government created almost 50 years ago to save a share of the province’s resource wealth for the future.
In her 2024 budget, Premier Smith earmarked $2.0 billion for the Heritage Fund this fiscal year—almost the exact amount spent on corporate welfare each year (on average) between 2007 and 2019. Put another way, the Alberta government could save twice as much in the Heritage Fund in 2024/25 if it ended corporate welfare, which would help Premier Smith keep her promise to build up the Heritage Fund to between $250 billion and $400 billion by 2050.
By eliminating corporate welfare, the Smith government can create fiscal room to reduce personal and business income taxes, or save more in the Heritage Fund. Any of these options will benefit Albertans far more than wasteful billion-dollar subsidies to favoured firms.
Authors:
Alberta
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