“Who will back down in the taxi stand-off?” asks the front page of this morning’s Helsingin Sanomat, as the split within the government shows no sign of resolution. In one corner, the Centre Party’s transport minister Anne Berner, who yesterday announced proposals to scrap limits on the number of taxi licences and remove controls on fares. On the opposite side, Finns Party leader Timo Soini, who immediately slammed the idea following the announcement. “These are the minister’s own [proposals], not the government’s, and certainly not the Finns Party’s,” he said.
A cab driver of 15 years’ experience tells the paper that before liberalising the taxi market, minister Berner should come and take a look at his taxi stand outside Helsinki’s central railway station. “There are cars, but no demand,” he says.
The transport minister also unveiled a controversial proposal yesterday to transfer ownership of all the country’s roads into a publicly-owned company, which would then raise money through charging drivers, rather than the current blanket road tax.
In a lengthy analysis Helsingin Sanomat wonders why the minister would want to take this idea so much further than elsewhere in Europe, where there are tolls for individual motorways but not for the entire road network.
But in fact, “incorporating all the roads into a fully state-owned company isn’t as radical a thought as it first appears,” the paper says, noting that Berner’s proposal is not the same thing as privatising the roads outright. A state-owned company could borrow money to make massive investment into the country’s roads, the paper points out, as happened with the country’s airports.
But Hesari concedes there are no magic solutions, and many unanswered questions. “Would the company have to make a profit?” one driver wonders. “And if so, what does that mean for us?”
Unemployment shakeup
Meanwhile at a nearby ministry yesterday, employment minister Jari Lindström was announcing more detail on his proposals to shake up unemployment benefit and get the jobless back to work. The Finns Party minister’s tough line has got some people worried, but Lindström insists that his measures will benefit the unemployed. “An engineer won’t have to take a job as a cleaner,” Ilta-Sanomat reports him as insisting.
Under the plans, anyone wishing to continue receiving unemployment support will have to make more detailed reports to authorities of their own job hunting efforts, and will be forced to accept full-time work even if it is on a lower salary or in a different field, or further away. Car owners will have to use their cars to travel to work if there is no public transport, although buying a car will not become mandatory. And supplementary salary-based unemployment benefit will be cut for anyone who was previously working in the so-called third-sector, such as charities.
In return, there will be no more sanctions against jobseekers who want to use their monthly allowance to try and start a business, and there will be more job-market-readiness training.
Ilta-Sanomat’s been out canvassing opinion about the reforms, which is mixed. “It’s a slightly negative bill overall, with its increased sanctions,” says one union head. A small-businesses representative says he’s sceptical. “The key should be making it easier to get people into work. That’s not happening here at all. These measures get workers moving around more, and therefore improve the availability of workers, but they don’t create jobs.”
But a member of the public interviewed in the street tells the paper that he thinks it’s good that the changes encourage people to take responsibility for finding themselves work.
Baptism of fire
Sticking with the theme of employment, the front page of Iltalehti this morning carries the inspiring story of 15-year-old Jere, who poses in his hi-vis overalls next to his tractor. The youngster set up his own company selling firewood, and business is blazing.
The ninth-grader offers other would-be entrepreneurs his business tips, which include taking advantage of online services to make dealing with the paperwork easier, and underlines the importance of planning your business properly.
Jere himself has had to overcome the fact that he’s too young for a licence to drive his tractor, and needed an adult to sign for a bank loan. “It’s worth asking your mum and dad for help,” he advises.
09.45 EDIT: An earlier version of this article wrongly said that transport minister Anne Berner is in the National Coalition Party, this has been corrected to the Centre Party.