Archive for the ‘Economy/Employment’ Category
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Out of work? You may be out of luck. Why getting EI is harder than it’s ever been
Saturday, August 10th, 2024
The program is running a honking great cumulative deficit because of the pandemic and improving access would mean hiking premiums or adding federal funding. Both options are no-fly zones for politicians these days… They have doubled EI sickness benefits, from 15 to 26 weeks; introduced extensions in EI caregiving and parental benefits; and added EI funding for training. But changes to regular jobless benefits have been temporary and targeted, despite repeated promises for deeper reforms. They’ve neither addressed workers’ needs in the 21st century, nor EI’s core purpose.
Tags: economy, participation, standard of living
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Ford’s zealous desire to privatize alcohol sales will be costly for Ontario taxpayers
Friday, July 12th, 2024
The Liquor Control Board of Ontario (LCBO)… annual profit — $2.5 billion in 2023 — goes into the public treasury, where it pays for things like health care and education… it’s doubtful that Ontarians would want to pay higher taxes so that more profits from alcohol sales could go to highly-profitable grocery store chains… Once all the LCBO’s lost revenue is factored in, the full cost to the public treasury of this privatization will likely be… close to a billion dollars.
Tags: budget, economy, ideology, privatization, tax
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International Monetary Fund paints a rosy picture of Canada — maybe the country isn’t broken after all
Monday, June 17th, 2024
The IMF says Ottawa should seek additional revenue sources to reduce its reliance on deficit financing. It suggests raising the federal portion of the GST, as this space earlier advocated in also calling for a higher OAS eligibility age of 67… removing interprovincial trade barriers would boost the Canadian economy by about $80 billion a year… The IMF urges Canada to resume provision of social housing, a field Ottawa abandoned in the 1990s with disastrous consequences.
Tags: economy, housing, ideology, standard of living
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Years of corporate handouts achieved nothing. It’s time for something different
Thursday, June 13th, 2024
… corporate subsidies – either through tax incentives or direct funding and loans – now equal about $50-billion per year. That is slightly over one-half of the total amount of corporate taxes collected by the federal government and almost as much as they spend on health care. only 20 per cent of these business subsidies aimed at increasing productivity actually boost real income for Canadians. The other 80 per cent are not only ineffective but have to be paid for by either more taxes or by decreasing spending on other priorities.
Tags: budget, economy, ideology
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Mark Carney had a chance to weigh in one of the defining issues facing Canada. The answer he gave suggests he isn’t ready for public life
Tuesday, May 14th, 2024
Around the world, almost no serious person continues to believe that cutting taxes on the wealthy will unlock growth for working and middle-income people. Most advanced industrial democracies are dealing with inequality and challenges to economic growth by rejecting market fundamentalism and investing in things like public transit, child care, affordable housing and ensuring that low- and middle-income people have money to spend in the local economy.
Tags: budget, economy, ideology
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Economic growth tops the priority list for Canadian policymakers — here’s why
Thursday, April 25th, 2024
We should be making room for measures of personal and collective well-being other than GDP. But we also need economic growth — not just so we can consume more, or generate more revenue for governments, but so we can take better care of one another… growth could include better housing, better food and better health care, or even a better defence posture. And it need not require consuming more natural resources.
Tags: economy, globalization, ideology, standard of living
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Ottawa puts up $50M in federal budget to hedge against job-stealing AI
Sunday, April 21st, 2024
“There is a significant transformation of the economy and society on the horizon around artificial intelligence”… Some jobs will be lost, others will be created… AI is an issue “across sectors, but certainly clerical and customer service jobs are more vulnerable… two types of skills it makes sense to focus on in retraining — computational thinking, or understanding how computers operate and make decisions, and skills dealing with data.
Tags: budget, economy, participation
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Liberal budget hits a home run on housing, but plays small ball on care economy
Wednesday, April 17th, 2024
Here are three ways federal small ball could deliver big results without big spends in the coming months: Child care Workforce Deals… with a focus on workforce attraction and retention… tracking trends in the investments occurring in our long-term care, child care and health-care sectors… examining ways of putting new guardrails on public funding… Care services such as child care, long-term care, medical or dental community clinics can be a built-in feature of new housing and infrastructure developments.
Tags: budget, economy, Health, housing, jurisdiction, standard of living, tax
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Carbon pricing is good for the climate and affordability
Saturday, April 6th, 2024
To keep the planet livable for humans and most other life forms, we can’t keep burning fossil fuels, which are becoming scarce and costly… Climate-related damage to everything from agriculture to human health also drives up costs for everyone… This is no time to get rid of effective policies, or even water them down. Those attacking the carbon levy with false and misleading information offer no alternatives, especially ones as cost-effective as carbon pricing.
Tags: economy, Health, standard of living
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To solve the housing crisis, we must get government building housing again
Saturday, April 6th, 2024
Following the end of the Second World War, the federal government built or funded hundreds of thousands of nonmarket homes. But in the 1980s and 1990s, Conservative and Liberal governments pulled back… Nonmarket housing is not something that we should pursue instead of an increase in private sector construction… But the private sector alone — even freed of zoning — can’t provide relief to Canadians crying out for help… We need the government to get back into building housing.
Tags: housing, ideology, jurisdiction, participation, standard of living
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