International Monetary Fund paints a rosy picture of Canada — maybe the country isn’t broken after all
Monday, June 17th, 2024
The IMF says Ottawa should seek additional revenue sources to reduce its reliance on deficit financing. It suggests raising the federal portion of the GST, as this space earlier advocated in also calling for a higher OAS eligibility age of 67… removing interprovincial trade barriers would boost the Canadian economy by about $80 billion a year… The IMF urges Canada to resume provision of social housing, a field Ottawa abandoned in the 1990s with disastrous consequences.
Tags: economy, housing, ideology, standard of living
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Our cost-of-living crisis: In just three years rent has doubled, groceries are up nearly 40 per cent. There are solutions
Sunday, March 24th, 2024
… a new model of economic governance… would… strengthen the social safety net with universal basic income (UBI) and “living wages,” which pay workers according to the cost of living in their localities… Bottom line: The cost-of-living crisis is real, will not go away on its own, and threatens to stoke social unrest… there are solutions to it
Tags: ideology, participation, poverty, standard of living
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We’re losing workers, not jobs
Saturday, September 17th, 2022
It turns out that inflationary pressures are caused by pent-up retirements as well as pent-up spending. And those inflation-causing labour shortages are set to worsen before they improve… The worker shortages hold back economic growth and keep Canada’s productivity growth rates at notoriously low levels. Solutions include fast-tracking immigrants into jobs; experimenting with four-day work weeks and other hybrids; luring retirees back into the workforce; and closing the gender pay gap.
Tags: economy, globalization, immigration, participation, standard of living
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Profit and affordable housing don’t mix. Period
Sunday, May 22nd, 2022
Canada has a long tradition of governments at all levels providing affordable housing. Absent a profit motive, they can, as they once did, provide decent homes at reasonable prices and rents… The profit motive has its place in our mixed economy. But it has failed us in the provision of affordable housing. Housing will not be a human right until we accompany that noble sentiment with an abundance of affordable shelter.
Tags: economy, homelessness, housing, ideology, participation, standard of living
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From health care to pharmacare to housing, federal budget fails Canadians
Sunday, April 10th, 2022
In many ways, this failed budget looks like gesture politics, the act of appearing to care but doing little of substance… Canada can afford to do better for its people. The Canadian economy is indeed “booming”… The Parliamentary Budget Office (PBO) expects GDP to hit $2.8 trillion next year, about 18 higher than Ottawa forecast in December… Using conservative estimates, Ottawa is projecting a sharp drop in the federal deficit…
Tags: budget, economy, Health, housing, ideology, jurisdiction, pharmaceutical, standard of living
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Vaccine resisters are lazy and irresponsible — we need vaccine passports now to protect the rest of us
Sunday, August 1st, 2021
TheStar.com – Business/Opinion July 30, 2021. By David Olive, Star Business Columnist Vaccination passports are coming. Many Canadians object to getting vaccinated and bearing proof of their vaccination, but that’s where we’re heading. The vaccination rate among patriotic Canadians is higher than that of almost any country. But it’s much too soon to take a victory […]
Tags: economy, Health, ideology, jurisdiction, participation, rights
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The success of CERB is proof a universal basic income is doable and beneficial
Thursday, June 24th, 2021
A UBI is a government payment that tops up family income so that it modestly exceeds the poverty line, or low-income threshold. As households are able to generate more income on their own, UBI payments are scaled back and eventually discontinued. A UBI holds promise as our most powerful tool in eradicating poverty and solving the crisis of income inequality.
Tags: economy, featured, ideology, jurisdiction, participation, poverty, standard of living
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Governments paid billions to help develop COVID-19 vaccines — so why is Big Pharma charging us billions more for the vaccines we helped create?
Thursday, June 3rd, 2021
If we think of war profiteers as being lower than a snake’s belly, what are we to make of the drug industry’s pandemic profiteers? … Canada, like other government funders in this global crisis, is not expecting to recover its costs in funding COVID-related medicine… governments that fund research that is used in lucrative commercial drug production must demand a return on their investment.
Tags: budget, economy, featured, globalization, Health, pharmaceutical, privatization
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Canada needs the Connaught model of domestic vaccine production
Saturday, March 20th, 2021
A properly restored Canadian global powerhouse in vaccines would improve on the current world patchwork of players focused on discovery, clinical trials, safe packaging, mass production and a dozen other disciplines, layered over by conflicting priorities of national governments. That model conflicts with Ottawa’s current $1-billion national vaccine strategy.
Tags: economy, Health, ideology, pharmaceutical
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Trudeau’s using our moment of crisis to reinvent our economy. That’s exciting
Saturday, August 29th, 2020
The Liberals are not proposing radical change. Every advance they will propose is an expansion or acceleration of existing Canadian priorities and practices… The timing is right. Interest rates are at a historic low. The government’s cost of borrowing to pay for pandemic relief, a permanently stronger social safety net, and seed capital for tech-oriented startups with export potential is therefore manageable.
Tags: budget, economy, featured, ideology, participation, tax
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