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Tax policies may aggravate gap between rich and poor
Monday, May 30th, 2011
May 27 2011
Canada is witnessing a phenomenon in which the most wealthy are enjoying stunning increases in their income while the rest of society stagnates… In a 2008 study of 30 OECD countries, Canada was singled out as one of the member nations that has witnessed the worst widening of the wealth gap. Inequality and poverty declined in Canada for 20 years before the late 1990s, the OECD study said, but since have gotten much worse. Among OECD nations, only Germany saw as sharp an increase in inequality of household earnings, the report found.
Tags: budget, ideology, poverty, standard of living, tax
Posted in Governance Policy Context | 1 Comment »
Do we really want to ‘look more like Ireland?’ [corporate taxes]
Thursday, February 24th, 2011
Feb 24 2011
…despite a return to profitability after the recession, Canadian corporations were sitting on buckets of cash last year waiting to decide whether to make the investments in machinery and equipment needed to jumpstart the economy. The belief that lower business taxation automatically leads to significant job-creation, even in the long term, is “a leap of faith,” said Bruce Campbell… “I think it’s more ideologically driven than driven on the basis of empirical evidence.”
Tags: budget, ideology, tax
Posted in Policy Context | No Comments »
Ottawa and Ontario call for higher CPP benefits
Friday, June 11th, 2010
Jun 10 2010
“I believe that we should consider a modest, phased-in and fully funded enhancement to defined benefits under the Canada Pension Plan in order to increase savings adequacy in the future,” federal Finance Minister James Flaherty says in a letter to Ontario’s Finance Minister Dwight Duncan Thursday. The Flaherty letter was released late in the day after Duncan made public a letter he had earlier sent to his provincial and federal counterparts calling for similar enhancements to the CPP.
Tags: pensions, standard of living
Posted in Social Security Debates | No Comments »
Ontario to urge expansion of Canada Pension Plan
Friday, June 11th, 2010
Jun 10 2010
… the province is urging all governments to agree to a modest expansion of the Canada Pension Plan… In coming years, the share of retirees failing to meet the desired savings for 70 per cent income replacement is projected to rise from 15 per cent for those born in the 1940s to just over 24 per cent for those born in the 1980s, the report says. And the findings show that a disproportionate number of middle-income Canadians will end up in this group of 24 per cent who face a declining standard of living when retired.
Tags: pensions, standard of living
Posted in Social Security Debates | No Comments »
Ignatieff vows to scrap tax cuts for business
Monday, March 29th, 2010
Mar 29 2010
…by freezing the rate at its current 18 per cent, the Liberals say Ottawa would ultimately have $6 billion in extra annual tax revenues. This would help a Liberal government bring down the budget deficit to a planned $18 billion or so annually in a few years and also pay for what Ignatieff said would be a very few new spending programs.
Tags: tax
Posted in Governance Debates | No Comments »
Ontario loses in wealth-sharing plan
Thursday, February 25th, 2010
Feb 25 2010
Canada’s wealth-sharing program is so out of whack that Ontario residents are helping to fund better government services in so-called poor provinces than they enjoy at home, a new study says…
Compared to the “have” provinces, the poorer provinces that receive equalization money benefit from substantially more doctors and nurses per capita, lower university tuitions, more daycare spaces, lower students-per-teacher ratios and more long-term-care beds, according to the study.
Posted in Governance Debates | No Comments »
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