Archive for the ‘Policy Context’ Category
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THE HIGH COST OF LOW CORPORATE TAXES
StatsCan numbers show that drastic cuts to the corporate income tax rate over the last 20 years have not stimulated new business investment… “In Canada, the evidence is that increasingly a larger fraction of income to corporations is related to excessive profits,” said Joseph Stiglitz, a Nobel Laureate and Professor at Columbia University. “Lower tax rates encourage firms to engage in more excessive profit seeking… income and wealth have boomed for a tiny fraction of the population, but this has not benefitted the rest of the population at all.
Tags: budget, economy, featured, globalization, ideology, standard of living, tax
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It’s time to take another look at our tax system
… Touted as among the best ways to create jobs, corporate tax cuts have by most accounts turned out to be no such thing… every dollar spent on infrastructure spending, income supports or housing investments is seven times more effective in creating jobs… for every dollar corporations pay to the Canadian government, individual taxpayers now pay $3.50 – a result not only of repeated cuts, but also of a slew of tax loopholes and international treaties introduced in recent decades that promote or at least facilitate corporate tax avoidance.
Tags: budget, economy, globalization, ideology, tax
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Ontario passes labour-reform bill, $15 minimum wage looms
Ontario will implement a $15 minimum wage on Jan. 1, 2019, and enact other new worker-focused rules even sooner… The labour reforms put in place by the Liberals include requirements that employers pay part-time, casual and temporary employees the same rate as full-time employees for the same job; that employers must pay workers three hours’ wages for shifts cancelled with fewer than 48 hours’ notice; and that all workers be eligible for 10 days of emergency leave, two of which must be paid.
Tags: economy, featured, ideology, jurisdiction, participation, standard of living
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The Lion’s Share: Pension deficits and shareholder payments among Canada’s largest companies
… 39 companies oversaw a $10.8 billion deficit in their pension plans in 2016, while increasing shareholder payouts from $31.9 billion in 2011 to $46.9 billion last year. This paper, co-published by the CCPA and the Canadian Labour Congress, details the extent to which DB pension plans among S&P/TSX 60 companies are underfunded, provides the cost to shareholders that eliminating the pension deficits would pose, and offers a series of recommendations for ensuring the security of retirees’ benefits.
Tags: economy, featured, globalization, pensions, rights, standard of living
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Why Canada needs progressive reforms in employment insurance
Employment Insurance… remains an important and relevant part of the Canadian social safety net. Changes are needed to respond to new labour market realities, but the program should not, as some argue, be folded into a universal basic income… The objective of income stabilization for individuals is at odds with most calls for a redistributive basic income based on family income.
Tags: economy, featured, ideology, standard of living
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Demise of Sears Canada should be catalyst for change
… to prevent this sort of fiasco… chang[e] our corporate laws so that those controlling corporations can be held personally liable for money owed to their employees… Wealthy capitalists used to be personally responsible for unpaid wages when their businesses went under. But capitalists fought hard in the late 19th and early 20th century to win the right to limit their liability. At first they won only a partial limit, but over the years U.S. and Canadian courts have extended that limit.
Tags: economy, ideology, pensions, rights
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Why business and banks hate the minimum wage
… high-wage employers benefit from reduced turnover, lower recruitment costs, and greater productivity. That’s why more than 40 economists also signed an open letter cautioning against “fear-mongering that is out of line with the latest economic research”… At a time when the provincial unemployment rate has plunged to the lowest level in 16 years — 5.8 per cent last month — business interests want us to believe that we can’t afford it?
Tags: economy, featured, Health, ideology, jurisdiction, participation, poverty, standard of living
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Income grows in resource-rich provinces, Ontario and Quebec lag behind
All told, 4.8 million people in Canada were considered as living in low income in 2015, compared with 4.3 million in 2005. Though the rate was little changed, the poverty shifted among regions and age groups. More seniors are living in low income, while the share of the youngest children in low-income households fell. The rate of seniors in low income climbed to 14.5 per cent from 12 per cent a decade ago. By province, low-income shares… rose to 14.4 per cent from 12.9 per cent.
Tags: economy, featured, poverty, standard of living
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Canadian incomes jump, Ontario residents hit by manufacturing downturn: Statistics Canada
Canadian incomes have risen by more than 10 per cent over the last decade, fuelled by a booming resource sector, while the number living on low incomes is rising in Ontario where growth has been sluggish, Statistics Canada says… the downturn in the manufacturing sector slowed income growth and the proportion of low-income residents has been on the rise… Across Ontario, 14.4 per cent of residents — some 1.9 million people — were low income in 2015, an increase from 12.9 per cent in 2005.
Tags: economy, featured, jurisdiction, participation, poverty, standard of living, youth
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Ontario must toughen law to protect temporary workers
… as it stands now hiring through temp agencies limits companies’ liability for accidents on the job, reduces their responsibility for making sure that employees’ legal rights are respected, and cuts costs — all at the expense of workers’ safety and earnings. The legislation now before the Ontario legislature does not address these concerns. As a result, the growing trend toward hiring temp workers — creating an increase in precarious work — may continue unabated.
Tags: economy, featured, globalization, Health, ideology, jurisdiction, participation, poverty, rights, standard of living
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