Archive for the ‘Equality’ Category
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The increasing inequality
Saturday, April 14th, 2012
… there is a direct correlation between levels of income and the rate of poverty, chronic disease, addiction, mental illness and incarceration… Canadians believe the inequality gap is undermining our democracy and core values. These values are under attack from the increasing inequality gap and all fair-minded Canadians want this situation reversed. The fastest way to close the inequality gap is by making our taxation system fairer.
Tags: crime prevention, economy, Health, ideology, poverty, tax
Posted in Equality Debates | No Comments »
Punishing the rich with extra taxes not an answer to inequity
Friday, April 13th, 2012
Apr. 12, 2012
… the day may come when it’s necessary to pay more tax – for everyone, not just $500,000-plus earners, who already pay at the highest marginal rate, making for high individual contributions. An extra two per cent is a form of punishment for success… Public hospital or university boards do need to show restraint and due diligence at the top – the top needs to be a model for the entire organization. The logic of restraint, applied fairly to all, is the most sensible policy, before any talk of raising taxes.
Tags: budget, ideology, tax
Posted in Equality Debates | 1 Comment »
A new Canadian survey on the rich/poor gap and taxes should spark debate
Wednesday, April 11th, 2012
Apr 10 2012
“The option of raising taxes to protect the social programs we cherish and to address income inequality has been absent from public debate for too long,” says… Ed Broadbent. “Our research shows Canadians are prepared to do their part and they expect the wealthy, corporate Canada, and their own governments to be a part of the solution, not a part of the problem.”… Fully 89 per cent think addressing income inequality should be a government priority and 77 per cent think it’s a serious problem… As Broadbent argues, “gross inequality isn’t inevitable, it’s a political choice.” One that has distorted the public agenda for too long.
Tags: ideology, standard of living, tax
Posted in Equality Debates | 1 Comment »
The wrong answer to aboriginal overincarceration
Friday, April 6th, 2012
Apr. 05, 2012
Handing young aboriginal men and women a stay-out-of-jail card in cases of serious violence is a mistaken answer to the problem of overincarceration of aboriginal people in Canada. It puts one wrong in place of another… There is no doubt that the overrepresentation of aboriginal people in provincial and federal jails is a calamity for the country, for aboriginals and for the individuals behind bars… In the Louie case, having an aboriginal mother protected him from being held fully accountable for committing a violent crime.
Tags: corrections, crime prevention, Indigenous
Posted in Equality Delivery System | No Comments »
Doctors say tax us! Ontario is worth it
Tuesday, April 3rd, 2012
Apr 02 2012
Almost all the economic gains of the past three decades have gone to Canada’s top 1 per cent but our taxes haven’t gone up accordingly. Controlled for inflation, during the last 30 years, the highest earning fifth of Canadians increased their pay by 40 per cent while the earnings of the lowest fifth fell by 11 per cent… As physicians, we see the impact of this growing inequality on our patients and communities. Diabetes rates are skyrocketing in poor neighbourhoods. And economic inequality is bad for everyone. For example, less equal societies have much higher rates of violence…. After several years of discussion, five of us launched Doctors for Fair Taxation < http://doctorsforfairtaxation.ca/ >.
Tags: ideology, standard of living, tax
Posted in Equality Debates | 2 Comments »
It still comes down to fixing the reserves
Sunday, March 25th, 2012
Mar. 14, 2012
Systems and structures are fine and necessary, as is proper funding. But… results from formal education have more to do with parental attitudes, cultural assumptions about the importance of education and community norms than anything else. Which means that aboriginal education can’t be divorced from its core contextual problem – the reserves themselves that the panel correctly notes display socio-economic and health inequities, poverty, suicides, youth incarceration and abuse, high teen pregnancy rates, lower life expectancy and chronic disease.
Tags: budget, Indigenous, participation, rights, standard of living
Posted in Education Delivery System, Equality Delivery System | No Comments »
A simple way to tax the rich
Sunday, March 25th, 2012
March 9, 2012
While income earned from stock options is deemed to be ordinary income under our tax laws, a special deduction was created in 1984 (paragraph 110(1)(d)) which allows individuals to deduct 50 per cent of the income derived from exercising stock options. That is, only half of the employment benefit from stock options is subject to tax… The purpose of paragraph 110(1)(d) was to encourage more widespread use of employee stock option plans… there is no evidence the deduction achieved its stated goals… the entire deduction should either be eliminated… or a holding period should be attached to the exercised shares in order to qualify for the deduction.
Tags: budget, ideology, tax
Posted in Equality Policy Context | 2 Comments »
Raise taxes on the rich
Friday, March 23rd, 2012
Mar 03 2012
Rich people are not paying a disproportionate level of taxes. They are, generally, a higher burden on the world as they consume more resources than the rest of us. One of the best ways to equalize their contribution is to raise their taxes considerably.
Tags: budget, ideology, tax
Posted in Equality Debates | No Comments »
Native education must be funded equally with public schools
Friday, March 23rd, 2012
Mar 01 2012
… to actually improve the situation the upcoming federal budget needs to include new, dedicated funding. Right now, Ottawa provides thousands of dollars less per student than provinces spend to educate non-native kids. Fewer than 40 per cent of native students – half the rate for non-natives – graduate from high school. It’s a tragedy for them and a terrible waste of potential for the country.
Tags: budget, Indigenous, participation, standard of living
Posted in Equality Delivery System | No Comments »
Conservatives set to back motion to end aboriginal education funding gap, fulfilling Shannen’s Dream
Monday, February 27th, 2012
Feb. 27, 2012
Charlie Angus, the New Democrat whose motion goes to a vote Monday, says the government is “running out of road” on the question of aboriginal education. The Timmins-James Bay MP worked with a young girl from Attawapiskat, Shannen Koostachin, whose fight for proper schools in her community became one of the largest youth-driven civil rights campaign the country had ever seen.
Tags: budget, Indigenous, participation, rights, standard of living, youth
Posted in Equality Delivery System | No Comments »
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