Archive for the ‘Policy Context’ Category
CERB is done, and it’s not coming back. Staring down the barrel of a recession gun, how are we going to fix this?
Wednesday, May 4th, 2022
… why not just bring back CERB when recession hits next time? Because it was too generous to be fiscally sustainable over the long run and not politically sustainable due to sectoral labour shortages. But today’s EI is not fit for purpose either. With less than four in 10 jobless workers able to access it, it’s too stingy. However, there is a lot of consensus on how to fix EI…
Tags: economy, globalization, ideology, participation, poverty, standard of living
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Too many dangers in promised privatization of care economy
Tuesday, April 26th, 2022
People with complications are too costly… They’ll end up in an underfunded public not-for-profit system. More access to care through for-profit providers does nothing to address the shortage of health care and eldercare workers and early childhood educators. Cheaper, more equitable, high-quality care that creates good jobs won’t happen by expanding for-profit care. Here are 10 advantages of investing more in public and not-for-profit care.
Tags: budget, disabilities, economy, featured, Health, ideology, jurisdiction, privatization, standard of living
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Ontario’s new gig-work bill might as well be written on DoorDash letterhead
Monday, March 7th, 2022
The Digital Platform Workers’ Rights Act may look as if it’s intended to bring app-based employers in line — but it’s not the change we need… Changing the law to define these workers as employees would obviate the need for any of these proposed changes. It would enshrine the rights of these workers along with those of everyone else.
Tags: economy, ideology, jurisdiction, rights, standard of living
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Don’t be fooled by Ontario’s ‘minimum wage’ for gig workers
Friday, March 4th, 2022
Ontario’s manipulative ‘minimum wage’ is an attempt to forestall genuine legislative and regulatory changes… workers at gig platforms already have the right to unionize through normal channels, and achieve genuine collective bargaining rights—they don’t need any special ‘law’, just clarification that they are indeed workers (whether employees or dependent contractors) not independent businesses.
Tags: economy, globalization, ideology, jurisdiction, standard of living
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Ottawa can strike a blow against precarity with stronger protections for gig workers
Monday, February 28th, 2022
What is really needed to stop the spread of misclassification is to start with the presumption that a worker is an employee, unless a case can be made that they are a bona fide independent contractor. A clear and relatively simple test can be established to determine whether someone is a legitimate contractor — i.e., do they set their own prices, perform work that is not the company’s “core” business, and have their own business doing the same work that they market independently? — or a misclassified employee.
Tags: economy, globalization, ideology, jurisdiction, standard of living
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Why Not 75 Years Old?
Tuesday, February 22nd, 2022
… since the creation of the RRSP in 1957, the age limit of 71 has never been raised… Given the sharp increase in life expectancy, the age limit of 71 years for converting an RRSP into a RRIF needs to be lifted… this type of change would optimize the mechanics of pension plans, and also encourage Canadians to remain in the workforce, which improves health and also helps with Canada’s looming labour shortage.
Tags: budget, economy, participation, pensions, tax
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Countries reach agreement on corporate tax
Saturday, October 9th, 2021
More than 130 countries have agreed on sweeping changes to how big global companies are taxed, including a 15 per cent minimum corporate rate designed to deter multinationals from stashing profits in low-tax countries… The OECD said that the minimum tax would reap some $150 billion (U.S.) for governments… it would end a “race to the bottom” in which countries outbid each other with lower tax rates.
Tags: economy, globalization, ideology, tax
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Ontario’s 10-cent hike in the minimum wage is bad for workers, bad for businesses and bad for the economy
Wednesday, October 6th, 2021
Some minimum wage workers work full-time and full year, but most work part-time. At 20 hours a week, a typical minimum wage worker would be earning $29 more a week if the minimum wage was 60 per cent of the average wage. Instead, on Friday, the government of Ontario legislated $2 more a week for them. That’s bad for workers, bad for businesses and bad for the economy… it isn’t business that creates jobs. It’s customers.
Tags: economy, ideology, jurisdiction, participation, standard of living
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EI Revisions Should Include More Flexibility in Its Work Incentives
Saturday, August 7th, 2021
Policymakers should revise WWC rules and set an earnings limit under which claimants won’t have EI benefits clawed back, and a modest clawback rate on earnings above that threshold – much like the CRB. Our review of Canadian and international evidence found that under these proposed rules more people, especially those displaced from lower paid jobs and who already have weaker labour force attachment, would be encouraged to work while collecting EI and to work more hours.
Tags: economy, ideology, participation, standard of living
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Governments paid billions to help develop COVID-19 vaccines — so why is Big Pharma charging us billions more for the vaccines we helped create?
Thursday, June 3rd, 2021
If we think of war profiteers as being lower than a snake’s belly, what are we to make of the drug industry’s pandemic profiteers? … Canada, like other government funders in this global crisis, is not expecting to recover its costs in funding COVID-related medicine… governments that fund research that is used in lucrative commercial drug production must demand a return on their investment.
Tags: budget, economy, featured, globalization, Health, pharmaceutical, privatization
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