Archive for the ‘Governance Debates’ Category
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Why would Ottawa even consider a tax that won’t increase revenue, but hurt middle-class Canadians?
Many employers will have to choose between offering benefit plans and sustaining employment levels, and individuals will have less money to help them get through the week. In addition, taxing employer-paid health and dental benefits would provide limited savings, if any, to the federal government. Analysis… clearly shows that introducing a refundable tax credit for individual insurance would likely cost more to the treasury than the savings from taxing health benefits.
Tags: budget, Health, ideology, standard of living, tax
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Don’t eliminate tax exemptions just to raise federal revenue
A growing number of tax carve outs has artificially created winners by bestowing privileges on a select group of taxpayers (in this case, those with employer-provided health and dental plans). Special tax preferences also increase the cost of complying with the tax system because claiming a tax benefit (credit, exemption, deduction) requires keeping records, ensuring eligibility and perhaps hiring an accountant to ensure you’re not missing out on any tax benefits.
Tags: budget, ideology, tax
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10 charts that defined Ontario in 2016
#1: Ontario’s Persistent Gender Pay Gap… #2: Ontario’s social assistance gap… #3: The predatory loan trap… #4: Ontario’s inadequate minimum wage… #5: Where the jobs are… #6: Housing affordability out of reach… #7: Home Sharing or Alt-Hotels? … #8: Toronto is finally talking revenue options… #9: Neglecting public services… #10: On the path to balanced budget
Tags: budget, economy, participation, poverty, standard of living, tax, women
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If fairness is the goal, Liberals should tax health and dental plans
It would, after all, tax as income a benefit that millions of Canadians are used to receiving tax-free — a break worth $2.9 billion… it probably makes sense, politically at least, for the government to use some of the revenues from ending the tax break on employer health plans to assist individuals to purchase their own. A tax preference that now mostly benefits higher-paid workers, and only in certain workplaces, could be replaced by a credit that was portable, universal, and targeted at those on lower income.
Tags: budget, economy, featured, ideology, standard of living, tax
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Bill C-51 damages Canada’s economy. It must be scrapped
Frankly, it comes as an unwelcome surprise to us to see your government float proposals that, far from addressing the serious problems with Bill C-51, will in fact dramatically exacerbate those problems. We hope you will not proceed with any of these dangerous ideas… Privacy and data integrity safeguards represent security in its most clear and basic sense. Let’s start with this understanding and work from there.
Tags: globalization, ideology, rights, standard of living
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How to sell taxes to Canadians? Show them why they should care
Over the past decade, we have consistently found that about two-thirds of Canadians say taxes are mostly a positive thing, because they pay for important things such as health care, education and roads… If you need to introduce a fee or tax and your goal is public acceptance, then there needs to be a credible – or at least plausible – case that it will pay for something that taxpayers care about.
Tags: budget, economy, featured, ideology, standard of living, tax
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Liberals face revolt if health tax used to pay down deficit
The blue ribbon panel… suggested changing the tax treatment of employer-provided health insurance, in exchange for broadening tax-based support for the purchase of private health insurance by individuals… this is a policy Finance has been trying to foist upon successive governments for nearly a decade… this is a move, like the reform of child-care benefit, that would end tax breaks that disproportionately help the better off.
Tags: budget, economy, Health, ideology, standard of living
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Star series triggers political fundraising reform
MPPs voted unanimously Thursday to ban corporate and union donations to political parties, outlaw provincial parliamentarians and candidates from attending fundraisers, and lower contribution limits… Under the rules, such third-party interest groups would be limited to $100,000 in advertising during elections and $600,000 in the six preceding months. There would be a $1-million spending limit during that period for political parties.
Tags: featured, ideology, jurisdiction, participation, rights, standard of living
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Why this economist thinks government intervention is a good thing
TheGlobeandMail.com – ROB/Magazine Nov. 28, 2016. PAUL WALDIE Mariana Mazzucato is part of a new wave of economists—passionate, outspoken and determined to make the case that governments have an important role to play in the economy. The Italian-born Mazzucato, who is a professor of the economics of innovation at the University of Sussex in England, […]
Tags: economy, globalization, ideology, standard of living, tax
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It’s time for big cities like Toronto to get new taxes
In a new paper published by the Institute on Municipal Finance and Governance, we make a case for a bolder commitment — giving cities like Toronto access to more taxes, to bring them in line with many large U.S. and European cities… Although the property tax is a good tax for local governments and could be increased in many Canadian cities, additional taxes would give cities more flexibility to respond to local conditions.
Tags: budget, featured, ideology, jurisdiction, standard of living, tax
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