Archive for the ‘Governance’ Category
Why you should care about Ontario’s riding boundaries
Thursday, August 8th, 2024
… electoral-riding maps are essential to how our democracy operates, to deciding who is represented by whom and at what ratio of elected representatives to population, to quite literally mapping out who gets heard and by whom and how. The Ford government should at least launch a review of the electoral map and commit to ensuring that every resident has fair, adequate, and near-equal representation. And if it’s not willing to take that on, it should take the federal boundaries and adopt them.
Tags: ideology, jurisdiction, participation, rights
Posted in Governance Delivery System | No Comments »
Who wants you to believe taxes have risen 2000 per cent? Would-be Prime Minister Pierre Poilievre for a start
Thursday, August 8th, 2024
For decades the Fraser Institute has been using its ample resources to disconnect taxes in the public’s mind from all the benefits, services, programs and infrastructure that taxes provide… the effective tax rate Canadians pay has increased by 28 per cent since 1961… But… government today provides a lot more benefits than it did in 1961 — most notably, universal health coverage and old age pensions — major programs that have become essential to the well-being and financial security of Canadians.
Tags: economy, Health, ideology, pensions, standard of living, tax
Posted in Governance Debates | No Comments »
The Danger of Poilievre’s ‘Axe the Tax’ Scam Hits Home
Monday, August 5th, 2024
Opposition to climate action stems mostly from Canada’s largely foreign-owned fossil fuel industry, American dark-money-funded think tanks and Canada’s major newspaper chain, owned by American hedge funds… Emissions are being reduced, and with the Canada Carbon Rebate the vast majority of Canadians are financially better off under pollution pricing… Canada cannot slogan its way out of the climate crisis
Tags: economy, globalization, ideology, standard of living, tax
Posted in Governance Debates | No Comments »
It is time for Canadians to confront Poilievre’s assault on decency
Friday, August 2nd, 2024
… extremist narratives have “increasingly normalized” threats to politicians and “have the potential to negatively affect the fabric of Canadian society.” Exploiting people’s frustrations and fears will do nothing to make life more affordable, improve access to health care, address climate change or strengthen equality. Canada’s common decency — the enduring values of civility and caring, honesty and humility — are central to understanding our country.
Tags: ideology
Posted in Governance Debates | No Comments »
Crown must settle with First Nations for breaching Robinson treaties: Supreme Court
Thursday, August 1st, 2024
The Crown made a mockery of its treaty promise to the Anishinaabe in Ontario by freezing annual payments to First Nations for 150 years, and it now must make things right, the Supreme Court of Canada has ruled… The decision noted that the Crown has derived “enormous economic benefit” from the land through mining and other activities over the years, while First Nations communities have suffered with inadequate housing and boil-water advisories. Lawyers for the plaintiffs said people have been living in abject poverty.
Tags: budget, featured, Indigenous, rights, standard of living
Posted in Governance History | No Comments »
Four decades of tax cuts, deregulation and privatization equals a serious distribution of wealth problem
Saturday, July 6th, 2024
After slashing government funding to public services starving them into crisis just to pay for tax cuts to the wealthy and their corporations, they then present privatization as the solution to a problem they created. The only thing deregulation and privatization does is create more profit-making opportunities…
Small tax cuts to the general population have been used as a cover for massive tax cuts to the wealthy and their corporations. Reversing tax cuts is not raising taxes, it is restoring revenue to rebuild our once civil society.
Tags: budget, ideology, privatization, standard of living, tax
Posted in Governance Debates | No Comments »
Doug Ford has bungled affordable housing and now Ottawa is rubbing his nose in it
Tuesday, May 14th, 2024
The federal government now says it will send funding directly to municipalities, cutting Ontario out of the equation entirely… Why can the two levels of government come together to build subsidized factories, but not subsidized housing? … Ultimately, the friction over funding may have less to do with personalities than priorities. In Ford’s Ontario, unaffordable factories count for more than affordable housing.
Tags: budget, economy, housing, jurisdiction
Posted in Governance Debates | No Comments »
We are rich Canadians and we support higher capital gains taxes
Tuesday, April 23rd, 2024
Ottawa wants to raise taxes for Canada’s ultra-rich. Rich people like us want that, too… with 1 per cent of the country’s residents holding over a quarter of all wealth. We need higher taxes to level out this rising wealth inequality… to fund new spending on priorities like Old Age Security, clean economy, medical care, child care, and housing, but it doesn’t go far enough to address class distortions… we’d also like to see a “super wealth tax,” an inheritance tax, and progressive property taxes
Tags: budget, economy, featured, ideology, standard of living, tax
Posted in Governance Policy Context | No Comments »
Trudeau would be wise to raise the GST to 7 per cent instead of reforming the capital gains tax
Tuesday, April 23rd, 2024
… the GST has underwritten Canada’s social safety net for more than 30 years. In 2006… the GST accounted for 30.6 per cent of all federal tax revenue… Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and finance minister Chrystia Freeland have sought refuge in progressive populism with their plan to expand the capital gains tax. But the sustainable policy choice would be to put those two points back on the GST.
Tags: budget, economy, tax
Posted in Governance Debates | No Comments »
Appointing judges will not fix the criminal delay problem
Saturday, April 20th, 2024
Numerous zero-tolerance policies, which forbid dropping certain categories of charges in exchange for mediation, restitution or non-criminal sanctions put an additional burden on the system. Minor matters, which could be diverted out of the criminal justice system with non-criminal resolutions, are treated the same as serious ones… The criminal delay problem will not be solved by judicial appointments, as delay is a result of the policies and procedures administering an overburdened criminal justice system.
Tags: corrections, ideology
Posted in Governance Delivery System | No Comments »
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