Flaherty: Manitoba is the second-last place to invest after Ontario

I am sure that when an investor decides to invest anywhere they look at more than the marginal effective tax rates. They will look at things such as labor costs, infrastructure required for their business and in the case of investing in certain areas such as mining or oil they will look at what natural resources are available. There is quite a bit of investment in oil in the southwest of the province at present and that is because there is likely more oil. The mines in the north were developed because of the minerals and happened in spite of the marginal tax rates. All you could say is if everything else were equal which is unlikely then an investor would be marginally better off investing in other provinces than Manitoba and Ontario.
Apparently it is OK for Flaherty to discourage investment in Ontario and Manitoba since neither has a Conservative government. It is wrong for Dion however to suggest Canada might have a recession under the Conservatives! This is from the National Post.

Flaherty: Manitoba is the second-last place to invest after Ontario (if you look at marginal effective tax rates ...)
Posted: September 25, 2008, 3:21 PM by Dan Goldbloom
Daniel Goldbloom

Back in March, Finance Minister Jim Flaherty infuriated Canada's most populous province by declaring Ontario the "last place" for businesses to invest. So when he dropped by National Post headquarters for an Editorial Board meeting and podcast interview, I had to ask him: What's the second last place?In the podcast interview (listen here and read it here), Mr. Flaherty did some earnest mental groping and came up empty-handed. After reminding me that his Ontario-slam was based on PST/GST harmonization, he said:"I'd have to think of my corporate tax rates, give me a moment here to think, it must be ... certainly not Alberta. I'd have to check that, it wouldn't be fair for me to guess at which province. It would be a non-harmonized province because ... I'd have to check to make sure I'm accurate about which one. One of the non-harmonized ones."The Minister said he'd get back to me, and went on his way. And I was sure I'd heard the last from him on the question. But — shocker! — this politician kept his word and sent me an answer:"Currently Manitoba is ranked second to Ontario in term of the highest marginal effective tax rate."In other words, according to our Federal Minister of Finance, if you use the marginal effective tax rate criteria, Manitoba is the second last place to invest.Of course, Mr. Flaherty also praised Manitoba's NDP government for lowering corporate tax rates; but I have a funny feeling that Gary Doer and a million-plus Manitobans will be more upset about being called 'second worst' than thrilled with 'most improved.'dgoldbloom@nationalpost.com