Archive for the ‘Debates’ Category
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Think you’ve got a pension? Well, you’d better think again
Monday, March 15th, 2010
Mar 15 2010
…a true pension guarantees predictable income, starting at some advanced age, which matches the increasing cost of living for retirees. Hope, expectations and estimates “in all probability” aren’t enough. Canadians need certainty. Pensioners need guarantees… pensions must be paid for by someone. The key to the future workability of the Canadian pension system is to create a framework that allows them to be offered at the lowest possible cost in today’s dollars.
Tags: pensions
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Innovation is our hidden deficit
Friday, March 12th, 2010
Mar. 12, 2010
Innovation lies at the heart of modern competitiveness. It drives growth. It improves productivity and living standards. It gives consumers new choices. It is the answer to the question of how a high-wage economy such as Canada’s can compete with emerging countries with low costs of production. The problem is that Canada is not an innovation leader, Canadian business invests far less in innovation than many of their foreign competitors, and the competition is about to get tougher…
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Owning the podium, selling the stadium
Friday, March 12th, 2010
Mar 12 2010
The Harper government portrays itself as standing up for Canada, but it is preparing a major sell-off of Canadian interests that will compromise our cultural sovereignty, national identity and national security. In last week’s federal budget, the Harper government signalled its intent to throw open the doors of foreign ownership in three strategic, previously protected, sectors: telecommunications, satellites and uranium. The issue here isn’t foreign investment, which is allowed. At issue is a move to allow giant multinational conglomerates to come in and take over Canadian companies in these key sectors.
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Stop delaying on pension reform
Friday, March 12th, 2010
Mar 12 2010
For a federal government that credits itself with a mastery of financial matters, it is difficult to fathom why the Conservatives keep running away from the perennial issue of pension reform…
With the federal government wavering, there is a growing clamour for pan-Canadian leadership that would forge a consensus at the highest levels: a national pension summit that would bring together the first ministers, the labour movement and industry experts to debate suggestions such as an expanded Canada Pension Plan.
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Harper’s foreign-ownership math
Thursday, March 11th, 2010
March 11, 2010
Consumers have come to believe that the nationalism that makes us want to see strong Canadian enterprises shouldn’t be a substitute for thoughtful public policy about how to attract investment to Canada and how best to stimulate competition. We want Canadian companies to be able to compete around the world, and win against the best in the world, and we get that this is a lot easier if we don’t impose unusual conditions on where they can go to attract the investment capital they need to grow.
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Jim Flaherty the latest to leap into ‘innovation gap’
Wednesday, March 10th, 2010
Mar 10 2010
Five Canadian finance ministers have tried to crack the productivity puzzle. All failed. Now Jim Flaherty is taking a stab at it…. unless business leaders do their part, it makes little sense to go on spending billions of dollars on research and development. “In an era of fiscal constraint, there has to be a compelling narrative to justify new public investments when other areas are being constrained”…
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‘New workplace order’ looms as boomers head to retirement
Tuesday, March 9th, 2010
Mar 09 2010
Consider the changes in labour supply, and the need for Canadian firms to do a better job at utilizing the skills of Canada’s under-represented workers. This will require a more inclusive work environment that addresses the unique issues faced by these groups. Language training for immigrants and extensive on-the-job training for people drawn from non-traditional labour pools will be crucial.
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Ontario wants more foreign students
Monday, March 8th, 2010
Mar 08 201
Premier Dalton McGuinty wants to transform Ontario into a beacon for foreign students, allow Crown corporations to compete globally, and sell clean-water expertise to a thirsty world…
“Open Ontario,” detailed in the speech to be read by Lieutenant-Governor David Onley in the Legislature, is a five-year plan that promises to improve access to colleges and universities for Ontarians by subsidizing them with fees from international students.
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Soros is right about capitalism
Saturday, March 6th, 2010
March 6, 2010
“Two forms of economic organization — state capitalism and international capitalism — are in competition with each other and neither is attractive,” he writes. “International capitalism is inherently unstable because it lacks adequate regulation. It is also highly unjust favouring the haves over the have-nots. State capitalism will lead to conflicts.” By state capitalism, Soros is talking about the Russian, Chinese or Venezuelan models, where governments are players/combatants not referees. Somewhere between the two lies a better capitalism, along with rules that impose moral behaviour.
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Mr. Harper, cut down these tariffs
Saturday, March 6th, 2010
March 05, 2010
If tariff cuts that eliminate import costs are beneficial for manufacturers — freeing up money for productivity gains and other uses, creating 12,000 jobs — then cuts that eliminated costs for everybody else would be just as good. Canadians pay hundreds of millions of dollars in protective tariffs on clothing made in certain countries, agriculture imports, on shoes, on certain metal products and in anti-dumping fees on steel imports. Even though it will leave up to $4-billion in tariffs in place, the Conservatives are full of fake free trade bravura. The Speech from the Throne said the government “will oppose trade protectionism in all its guises.” What utter baloney.
Tags: economy
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