Chapter 8: pg 162
Role of Government in Business
Gov activities divided into 6 categories:
• Crown Corporations : Company that is owned by federal or provincial government
o Created to bail out major industry in trouble
• Laws and Regulations: cover from taxation and consumer protection to environmental controls,
working conditions, and labour – management relations.
o Laws derived from 4 sources: constituition, precedents established by judges, provincial
and federal statues, and federal and provincial administrative agencies
• Taxation and Financial Policies: all levels of gov collect taxes. Is fine tuned by gov to achieve
certain goals or to give effect to certain policies fiscal policy
o Tax revenue used to pay for public services and fund gov operations and programs,
susidies
o 4 major tax base revenues: income(personal and businesses), sales, property
• Gov Expenditures: paying out to citizens, when citizens spend this money – businesses benefit.
• Purchasing Policies: gov are large purchasers of ordinary supplies, services, and materials to
operate the company.
• Services: direct/indirect activities – among them helping companies go international, bringing
companies to Canada, training and retraining the workforce, providing a comprehensive statistics
National Policy: gov directive that placed high tariffs on imports from United States to protect Canadian
manufacturing which had higher costs.
Privatization: process of governments selling crown corporations
Federal Gov Responsibilities: trade, incorporation, taxation, banking and monetary system, national
defence, unemployment, immigration, criminal law, fisheries
Marketing Boards: organizations that control the supply or pricing of certain agricultural products in
Canada
Provincial Gov Responsibilities: provincial trade and commerce, natural resources within their
boundaries, direct taxation for provincial purposes, licensing for revenue purposes, health and social
services, municipal affairs, property law, labour law and education
Municipalities: protects consumers. Services such as : water supply, sewage and garbage disposal, roads,
sidewalks, street lighting, building codes, parks etc.
Fiscal Policy: federal gov’s effort to keep economy stable by increasing or decreasing taxes or
government spending
Deficit: occurs when gov spends over and above amount it gathers in taxes for a specific period of time
(fiscal year)
Surplus: excess of revenues over expenditures
National Debt (Federal Debt): accumulation of government surpluses and deficits over time
Federal Budget: comprehensive report that reveals government financial policies for coming year
Monetary Policy: management of money supply and interest rates
Subprime mortgages: loans targeted at people who couldn’t qualify for regular mortgages b/c their credit
records were not good enough or they did not have credit history
Transfer payments: direct payments from government to other governments or to individuals
Equalization: federal government program for reducing fiscal disparities among provinces
Industrial Policy: comprehensive, coordinated government plan to guide and revitalize economy
Need for Laws
Criminal Law: crimes, establishes punishments and regulates investigation and prosecution of people
accused of committing crimes
Civil Law: legal proceedings that do not involve criminal acts
Business Law: rules, statues, codes and regulations that are established to provide a legal framework
within which business may be conducted and that are enforceable by court action
Statutory and Common Law Chapter 8: pg 162
Statutory Law: federal and provincial legislative enactments, treaties of federal government and written
law
Common Law: body of law that comes from decisions handed down by judges, - unwritten law
Precedent: decisions judges have made in earlier cases that guide the handling of new cases
Law made under delegated authority: administrative agencies
Administrative age
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