Archive for the ‘Debates’ Category
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There is no perfect economic response for Canada’s coronavirus shutdown
Friday, March 27th, 2020
There’s been a flurry of debate about the best method to get help to individuals in this crisis. Should it be delivered by way of targeted income-support programs, such as the CERB? Should the money instead go to employers, in the form of a wage subsidy, enabling them to keep paying their employees, even if they aren’t doing anything? Or should the government just mail everyone a cheque… the amount depending on their income – a universal, if temporary, basic income?
Tags: budget, economy, ideology, participation, tax
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Basic income is the answer to a COVID-stricken economy
Wednesday, March 25th, 2020
Let’s choose universal payments that can be in the mail next week rather than applying complex new formulas to an already dysfunctional system. It’s time for an emergency basic income to ensure hundreds of thousands of Canadians don’t fall through the cracks. Perhaps, like other plans that are drawn up in a crisis, we’ll discover that it makes sense to keep a basic income once this particular emergency is over. Because COVID-19 won’t be the last major setback to the Canadian economy.
Tags: economy, featured, ideology, jurisdiction, participation, poverty, standard of living
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A wartime economy is a very particular thing
Wednesday, March 25th, 2020
When there is only one economic objective, and everyone agrees what it is, central planning works tolerably well… Good policy ideas that are, for one reason or another, politically impractical at most times often become possible in crises, when the risks and rewards of experimentation are seen rather differently. The baby bonus came out of the Second World War. Perhaps some form of basic income will be the legacy of “World War C.”
Tags: budget, economy, globalization, Health, ideology, jurisdiction, rights, standard of living
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To address the needs of Canadians during the COVID-19 crisis, we need a targeted basic income
Tuesday, March 24th, 2020
A targeted income maintenance approach that is conditional on income — what we refer to as a “targeted basic income” — meets the urgency of the current crisis. And, because seniors and children already have a guaranteed annual income through the Old Age Security, Guaranteed Income Supplement and CCB programs, the major remaining gap in social policy must address the needs of low-income working-age people — particularly those without children.
Tags: budget, economy, featured, ideology, jurisdiction, poverty, standard of living
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Federal COVID-19 aid needs speed, and space to grow
Tuesday, March 24th, 2020
Many of us know the current system is broken and prioritizes profit over people and their well-being. The pandemic is making those cracks clear. The response to the pandemic has shown that the government has the capacity to act in the public interest on a massive scale – job-protected paid sick leave for all workers was not on any government’s agenda before last week. We will need to carry that urgency to build a better society with us into the recovery to ensure that we do not return to “normal.”
Tags: budget, economy, globalization, ideology, participation, standard of living
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Postponing Retirement New Reality For Older Workers
Tuesday, March 24th, 2020
… given the COVID-19-related slump in the market, older workers may need to spend extra years on the workforce, or settle for a lower level of retirement income… Recognizing that working past age 70 will become more common in the future, Ottawa should also raise the age at which workers must stop contributing to tax-deferred saving vehicles and start receiving income from them to age 75 from the current 71… [and] amend OAS and the CPP to allow for the deferral of income from these programs to age 75
Tags: globalization, ideology, participation, standard of living, tax
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Beyond the fog of the pandemic, there is a new energy future in sight. Let’s go build it
Monday, March 23rd, 2020
Canada’s energy industry is part of the solution to the global climate crisis. We are developing Canadian technologies and processes that dramatically reduce carbon emissions and provide the world with cleaner sources of energy… The COVID-19 crisis can be the turning point we needed.
Tags: budget, economy, globalization, ideology
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Gig-economy workers already knew what coronavirus is teaching the rest of us now
Saturday, March 21st, 2020
… we already have the antidote to precarity: security — income security. And not just in an emergency. Income security sounds like something abstract or complicated, but nothing could be more tangible and understandable: If you lose income, you make it up with a guaranteed minimum; if you gain or regain income, you give up your supplement (it’s taxed back).
Tags: economy, ideology, jurisdiction, participation, standard of living
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Some of our most undervalued workers now among our most valuable as pandemic forces rethink of what jobs are critical
Saturday, March 21st, 2020
Millions of so-called “low skill” workers are also indispensable to our well-being, possibly even our survival… They have to keep working: both to earn income (most wouldn’t even qualify for Employment Insurance), and to serve us… Indeed, the precarious insecurity of these supposedly “menial” jobs now poses major risks to the rest of society.
Tags: economy, ideology, participation, standard of living
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Beyond pipelines: The nation-building project that could electrify Canada
Tuesday, March 17th, 2020
… consumers on both sides of the power lines benefit from lower prices… a national plan to build out our electricity-transmission infrastructure could also provide a worthy outlet for the economic stimulus… Capitalizing on minuscule interest rates, the economic recovery effort can leave a legacy of infrastructure upon which deeper decarbonization of our electricity grids can occur.
Tags: budget, economy, jurisdiction, standard of living
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