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Justifying lower corporate taxes
Saturday, March 26th, 2011
Mar. 26, 2011
… there’s a school of thought that inherent flaws in the tax regime are preventing Canada from reaping the gains of lower corporate taxes. Michael Smart… said there is “a raft of policies” that offset the benefits of lower corporate tax rates. Chief among them, in his opinion, is the move to reduce tax rates for small businesses alongside cuts to the main statutory rate that applies to larger companies. Small firms, he said, tend to be less productive than larger corporations, and reducing their rates below the statutory level provides no incentive for them to expand and invest.
Tags: economy, globalization, tax
Posted in Policy Context | No Comments »
Grey wave to hit provinces’ bottom line by mid decade
Tuesday, March 8th, 2011
Mar. 8, 2011
“On the path to restoring fiscal balance, provinces will have to deal with the implications of demographic trends for both revenue and program spending,” said Paul–André Pinsonnault, senior fixed-income economist at NBF. “The provinces are approaching a critical point and credible policies needs to be put in place to address this issue head on.”
Tags: budget, disabilities, Health, mental Health, pensions, standard of living
Posted in Governance Policy Context | No Comments »
Canada comes up short on jobs
Friday, January 28th, 2011
Jan. 28, 2011
Canada can no longer claim to have recouped all the jobs lost during the recession. The economy is roughly 30,000 jobs short, according to Statistics Canada… it has revised its labour data to reflect 2006 census figures, as opposed to using 2001 population data… However, it added the unemployment rate, at 7.6% as of December, remains unchanged. Based on the revisions, the agency says 428,000 jobs were lost between October 2008 and July 2009. From July 2009 to last month, the revised data suggest 398,000 net new jobs were created – meaning there is 30,000-job gap.
Tags: economy, globalization
Posted in Debates | No Comments »
Corporate tax relief no ‘magic’ solution: Ignatieff
Wednesday, January 12th, 2011
Jan. 12, 2011
Liberal Leader Michael Ignatieff tried to debunk Wednesday findings from the Canadian manufacturing lobby on the positive impact corporate tax cuts would have on employment levels… Cutting business taxes would do nothing more than fatten corporate profits, he told reporters… “I will tell you what creates jobs and investment. It is investment in education and investing in maintaining the standard of living of middle-class Canadians.”… The Liberals have pledged that, if elected, corporate tax levels would be scaled back to 18%, or 2010 levels.
Tags: budget, economy, tax
Posted in Debates | No Comments »
Canada should consider health-care user fees: OECD
Monday, September 13th, 2010
Provinces administer health care, with a big help from Ottawa through federal transfer payments. But at present, the OECD said the budgets provinces are working with means that “rationing has been necessary, and queues have been endemic, especially as strong concepts of fairness [enshrined in law] prohibit any use of private payment to skip queues or constrain demand.”… “The Canadian system offers high-quality services to all residents, although at relatively high cost,” the OECD said. “Meeting the demographic and fiscal challenges requires bringing down trend growth in public health spending significantly, lest other public spending is squeezed and/or taxes rise.”
Tags: budget, standard of living
Posted in Health Debates | 1 Comment »
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