Fraser Intitute’s ‘Consumer Tax Index’ grossly misrepresents reality
Posted on April 24, 2010 in Governance Debates
Source: CCPA — Authors: Bruce Campbell
ccpanews.ca – nationalnewswire
April 22, 2010
The third round of negotiations for the Canada-EU Comprehensive Economic and Trade Agreement (CETA) are taking place in Ottawa this week (April 19-23).
In Negotiating From Weakness, an analysis of the proposed proposed agreement, CCPA senior research fellow Scott Sinclair warns that the proposed agreement poses a serious threat to Canada’s procurement policies and a broad range of public services such as waste, drinking water, and public transit. The proposed rules would entrench commercialization, especially public-private partnerships; prohibit governments from obliging foreign investors to purchase locally, transfer technology or train local workers; and make it far harder for governments to reverse failed privatizations.
Click here to read the full report. And for an opportunity to see the news conference for the Trade and Justice Network, click here.
Also, this week the Fraser Institute released a report claiming that the average Canadian family’s tax bill has increased by a whopping 1,624% since 1961.
The report was widely distributed by several media outlets despite the fact it’s conclusions were based on misleading calculations.
In a reponse entitled Fraser Institute Tax Index: Half a Century of Fuzzy Math, CCPA research associate Erin Weir shows how average taxes in the report were overstated, and how new public services that account for tax increases were ignored.
Click here to read the full commentary.
Iglika Ivanova, Public Interest Researcher at the CCPA’s BC Office, also writes a scathing response to the Fraser Institute’s report. In Have taxes really changed all that much over the past century?, Iglika notes that the Fraser Institute did not even adjust their numbers for inflation, nor consider that incomes grew over the last half a century, accounting for a rise in tax revenue.
Click here to read Iglika’s full commentary.
All the best,
Bruce Campbell, Executive Director
Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives
410-75 Albert Street, Ottawa, ON K1P 5E7
tel: 613-563-1341 fax: 613-233-1458
email: info@policyalternatives.ca
http://www.policyalternatives.ca
Tags: budget, economy, ideology, standard of living
This entry was posted on Saturday, April 24th, 2010 at 12:18 pm and is filed under Governance Debates. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can skip to the end and leave a response. Pinging is currently not allowed.
Recent Comments