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Governments Can`t Find Money For HealthCare..........But They Found Millions To Save The Montreal Grand Prix

And taxpayers in Quebec and the rest of the country will pay $12 million for the race's return.

The Grand Prix is estimated to bring $80 million in economic fallout to the city during the week it's held here. Each level of government stands to make about $8 million in tax revenue

so $8 million for the the city, $8 million for the province and $8 million for the national gov't. Thats CAD$24 million, the government doubles it's investment, and the private sector makes tens of millions more. What is so bad about this again?

I think the $8 million figure is misleading.

I believe that a large portion of the $8 million in tax is in the form of PST (provincial tax) and GST (federal tax) that is being collected from fans spending money in the city. Unfortunately most of those fans are Canadian and would have spent that money in Canada anyway. For the portion of the taxes paid by Canadians, they are essentially paying millions to shift the source of the tax from normal purchases to the Grand Prix, without *really* making much profit from it (IMHO).

Montreal benefits, from all the increased business; Quebec will probably still come out ahead. But for Canadian taxpayers, they are essentially paying for a federal stimulus package for Quebec. GST revenue from Canadians doesn't really increase, and foreign tourists can reclaim their GST.

The $12 million is also part of a $30 million dollar deal. If they don't come up with another $12 million, taxpayers will probably be paying that as well.