Archive for the ‘Economy/Employment’ Category

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CRA names companies that received federal emergency wage subsidy

Tuesday, December 22nd, 2020

… more than 368,000 businesses, non-profits and charities in Canada have received the Canada Emergency Wage Subsidy (CEWS)… A recent review of CEWS disclosures by the Financial Post found that at least 68 publicly traded Canadian companies continued to pay out shareholder dividends while receiving the wage subsidy. The review found those companies got at least $1-billion in CEWS and paid out more than $5-billion in dividends.

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Ottawa has its hands all over the economy — and that’s just fine with business leaders

Tuesday, December 22nd, 2020

“The concept is to bring a strong portfolio of public investments and private investment in a kind of renewed partnership between government, Canadian companies and pension funds and financial institutions in Canada to fully position our leadership in the world, (in areas) where we think Canada as a middle-sized country could make a difference”… they should have a strategy that pushes companies to be more competitive in the areas we are already good at.

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Ottawa will take a hard look at companies that paid dividends while accepting COVID-19 supports, Justin Trudeau says

Sunday, December 20th, 2020

The program was meant to help companies avoid layoffs and keep employees on the payroll… 30 companies that paid out a combined total of $2 billion to shareholders between April and September while receiving the wage subsidy… Extendicare, the largest operator of private nursing homes in Canada, had paid nearly $10.5 million in dividends since April, while its home-care subsidiary was receiving millions of dollars from the wage subsidy.

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The die has been cast on Canada’s carbon tax. Now we just need the courage to implement it across the country

Wednesday, December 16th, 2020

… there are those who claim that our carbon-pricing policy is unfair, imposing higher costs on some… but Canada’s carbon pricing policy is obsessed with equity. It is revenue-neutral on a national basis, meaning that each province receives precisely the amount that carbon taxes would collect. It includes support mechanisms for the most vulnerable. And the carbon tax rebates received by most Canadians will exceed the carbon tax they pay. Only high polluters will be net losers

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Justin Trudeau goes all in on the carbon tax. It’s the right thing – for the environment, and the economy

Monday, December 14th, 2020

The aim is for people to do such a good job of reducing emissions, and thereby avoiding the tax, that revenues eventually spiral to zero.  The carbon tax’s goal is its own obsolescence… Among economists, putting a price on carbon is generally seen as the most efficient way to push people and businesses to use less carbon… In taking the 2030 climate goals seriously, and choosing carbon pricing to achieve them, Ottawa is making the right move, rather than the easy move.

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Want to tackle COVID-19 in low-income neighbourhoods? Let’s start with paid sick leave

Saturday, December 12th, 2020

… taking a day here to get tested or a couple days there to self-isolate eats up half the two-week entitlement… Plus, the benefit does not always offer enough money to make up for lost wages… But tweaks won’t do much about the power relationship between boss and employee. That fix can only come through provincial governments enshrining stronger worker protections and employer-paid sick leave into law…

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How Canada is fighting the war on talent

Wednesday, December 9th, 2020

… evidence suggests Canada has largely reversed its brain drain. This country’s fast-growing technology sector is more than holding its own in the global race for talent, even after the deep economic shock of the pandemic… there are nearly 100,000 more jobs now in so-called STEM disciplines – science, technology, engineering and math – in this country than there were before the pandemic. There is still a gaping hole in Canada’s job market, but not for these people.

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Basic income hailed as key in kickstarting the economy in a post-pandemic Canada

Wednesday, December 9th, 2020

 A universal basic income would not only lift more than 3.2 million Canadians out of poverty, it would also create hundreds of thousands of new jobs, grow the economy by tens of billions of dollars and eventually pay for itself with increased tax revenues… the biggest message coming out of this (report) is that a basic income program can be designed in a sustainable way,” said Paul Smetanin, CANCEA president and one of the report’s authors. “It can be thought of as an investment as opposed to a cost.”

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Canada’s rapidly approaching fiscal crisis isn’t driven by the pandemic

Sunday, December 6th, 2020

… thanks to the remorseless arithmetic of population aging, with its crushing combination of higher costs (mostly for health care) and lower revenues (with fewer people of working age to earn income or pay taxes on it)… the provinces’ collective debt-to-GDP ratio is likely to hit 120 per cent by mid-century.

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A national child-care program would be a boon to Canada’s post-COVID recovery — none more so than Ontario’s

Saturday, November 28th, 2020

Ontario’s failure to build a 21st-century child-care system is holding back provincial economic recovery. Its patchwork arrangement of overstretched group care, tax-subsidized nannies and sky-high fees squanders tens of billions of dollars of GDP, income and tax revenue. Ontario, and other lagging provinces, have a golden opportunity to fix this problem — and in so doing accelerate Canada’s reconstruction after COVID-19.

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