Archive for the ‘Debates’ Category
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The price of Canada’s fraying safety net
Wednesday, January 19th, 2011
Jan. 18, 2011
Our federal government delivers many social benefits through the Employment Insurance system. These include sickness, compassionate-care, maternity and parental leave. These “special benefits” account for a quarter of EI expenditures. Most of the federal government’s spending on job training also is delivered through the EI system… [but] we know that many working Canadians don’t qualify for EI. The design and financing of these programs must be reformed in order to better serve Canadian families.
Tags: economy, ideology, rights, standard of living
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Yesterday’s EI is failing today’s Canada
Wednesday, January 19th, 2011
Employment Insurance in Canada is broken… But attempts at serious reform, such as Lloyd Axworthy’s Social Security Review in 1994, always come up against the same old story in Canada: regional politics. It is time for those outside government to identify a new model to help Canada’s unemployed. We can’t wait for the federal government to act. Canadians need to provide it with a path forward–and the necessary national consensus that this path is the right one.
Tags: economy, standard of living, tax
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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
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What you don’t know about a deal you haven’t heard of
Thursday, January 6th, 2011
Jan. 6, 2011
In coming days, Canadian and European officials will intensify negotiations on a new trade agreement most Canadians have never heard of. The Canada-European Union Comprehensive Economic and Trade Agreement is by far the largest free-trade deal this country has ever undertaken… CETA will likely have a NAFTA-type investor-state enforcement mechanism… [which] emphasizes investor protection over government policy… CETA serves the only profit interests of the big business community. We can do better.
Tags: globalization, ideology, participation, privatization
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Proof is in the numbers for Flaherty’s corporate tax cuts
Wednesday, January 5th, 2011
Jan. 05, 2011
… the Finance Department reported in October that corporate tax revenues had increased, year over year, by 3 per cent – notwithstanding lower corporate earnings and Mr. Flaherty’s incremental corporate tax cut a year ago… Corporate tax revenues in the past decade averaged 12.6 per cent of the government’s income; in 2010, it provided 13.9 per cent… Mr. Flaherty has worked hard to get corporate rates down – not to 15 per cent, which is merely the federal share, but to 25 per cent: the target he has championed for federal and provincial rates combined.
Tags: budget, globalization, ideology, standard of living, tax
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Halt corporate tax cuts, Liberals say
Friday, December 31st, 2010
Dec 30 2010
The Liberals on Thursday urged the federal government to halt billions in corporate tax cuts, saying it’s irresponsible to help companies when the country is drowning in debt… Regan chastised the Conservatives for forging ahead with a tax break “we can’t afford” when Canada’s corporate tax rates are already amongst the lowest in the G7… The corporate tax cut amounts to $1.65 billion next year, and jumps to nearly $4 billion in 2012.
Tags: budget, ideology, tax
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Oil industry gets almost $3B in subsidies: Report
Wednesday, December 29th, 2010
December 29, 2010
Canadian governments spent almost $3 billion subsidizing the oil industry in 2008, according to a recent report by a Winnipeg-based research institute… The International Institute for Sustainable Development… found 63 separate subsidy programs across Canada, mostly meant to increase exploration and development through a mix of tax breaks and royalty reductions… the research institute doesn’t see much benefit for taxpayers in the various federal and provincial subsidy programs. It calculates the subsidies will boost provincial economies by between 0.1% and 0.16% in the next decade
Tags: economy, ideology, tax
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The real cost of upsetting the work-life balance
Tuesday, December 21st, 2010
Dec. 20, 2010
A connection between bad bosses and bad health has long been suspected… Now, new research shows that a manager’s approach to work-life balance predicts just how likely his or her employees are to have a heart attack or a stroke – catastrophic events that cost $25-billion a year, according to the Conference Board of Canada. That sum includes disability benefits, hospital care and drugs, but doesn’t come close to measuring the human costs – the family relationships, expertise, and human capital lost when an employee burns out or, worse, dies prematurely.
Tags: Health, standard of living
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Full speed into the sinkhole of austerity
Monday, December 20th, 2010
Dec 20 2010
The outcome of premature fiscal consolidation is all but foretold: growth will slow, tax revenues will diminish, and the reduction in deficits will be disappointing. And, in our globally integrated world, the slowdown in Europe will exacerbate the slowdown in the United States, and vice versa… A large-scale public-investment program would stimulate employment in the short term, and growth in the long term, leading in the end to a lower national debt. But financial markets… [are] applying pressure for spending cuts, even if that implies reducing badly needed public investments.
Tags: budget, economy, globalization, ideology, standard of living
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‘Stunning loss’ of Canadian market share in U.S.: report
Saturday, December 18th, 2010
December 17, 2010
Canada, Mr. Rangasamy says, has suffered a “stunning loss of market share” in the United States for exports of most goods, with the exception of a clutch of resources. He blames the high Canadian dollar and the shift towards a service economy and away from manufacturing. Services, while more sheltered from global competition, are also inherently less exportable… The numbers are devastating… The lost market share represents billions of dollars worth of exports that may never come back… This all puts intense pressure on Canadian manufacturers to become much more productive.
Tags: economy, globalization, standard of living
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