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What do companies want from government policy? They want consistency and predictability. Whether policies are more supportive or less, consistency and predictability allow a company to plan things out. They allow a company to more easily forecast consumer demand as well as company expenditures.
It’s easy to get excited about subsidies for something seen as good and worthy of societal support. But it’s also clear, or implied, that those subsidies won’t last forever. The problem is when there are big and unexpected changes, big and unexpected booms and busts — especially that bust part. Companies can build up their demand and operations leaning on the subsidies, but then have a real struggle if the subsidies are suddenly removed.
We’ll see what happens, but this is essentially the challenge of the coming year in the Quebec province of Canada. The “California of Canada” has had …