Archive for the ‘Governance Debates’ Category
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Who the federal budget leaves out
… federal budgets… aren’t mere balance-sheets, but a statement of values and priorities… family income-splitting… [and] the Tax Free Savings Account… disproportionately benefiting the well-to-do… while costing the government billions in revenue losses… fewer unemployed workers than ever before able to qualify for employment insurance benefits. There is nothing in the budget to remedy this, and no serious job-creation measures to ease unemployment… the burden of inequality continues to be borne by those Canadians least able to withstand it.
Tags: budget, economy, ideology, participation, standard of living
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NDP and Liberals could use Joe Oliver’s good-news budget to their advantage
… most [popular new measures] aren’t expected to cost the federal treasury much money… most of Oliver’s new promises are so inexpensive that, this year at least, they will be more than offset by government plans to squeeze an additional $900 million from public servants… Both opposition parties say they’d end that tax break… If that $2 billion is added to Oliver’s projected surplus, both opposition parties could plausibly claim that, if elected, they would have $3.4 billion to spend this year on useful projects.
Tags: budget, child care, economy, ideology, standard of living, tax
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The federal government doesn’t owe Ontario, Alberta, more money
True, it’s odd that Ontario, a province considered a have-not for equalization remains a net contributor to federal coffers. But that’s the equalization calculation. It doesn’t mean that Ontario should receive more federal money. For the record, transfers between governments are a poor idea. When one government taxes citizens but hands a portion to another government, the accountability lines between voters and the governments that tax them become blurred.
Tags: budget, economy, ideology, standard of living, tax
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Following the money should be easy
… the information parliamentarians get when asked to vote spending — the “estimates” … [provide] inconsistent accounting, spending that gets netted against revenue and vanishes, no reconciliation of what they are voting with the budget plan… if you compare… what the federal, provincial and territorial governments actually spent with what they budgeted over the past decade, the cumulative overrun was $48 billion… More than Ottawa spends on transfers to seniors in a year. Far more than it collects in GST.
Tags: budget, economy, featured, ideology, participation, rights, standard of living
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Alternative federal budget pushes for needed spending
[It] would increase federal government health-care spending to 30 per cent from less than 20 per cent of all spending on health care… introduce a national pharmacare program, making prescription drugs affordable for the increasing numbers of people without workplace health benefits… double the goods and services (GST) tax credit and national child benefit supplement, both targeting low-income earners. .. establish a new “poverty reduction transfer” to the provinces, requiring them to enhance their dismally low social assistance and disability benefit rates.
Tags: budget, economy, featured, Health, ideology, Indigenous, participation, poverty, standard of living, tax
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Ont. pledges $50 million to fight poverty
Local community groups on the front lines of the battle against poverty may be eligible to tap into a $50-million fund set up by the Ontario government… the Local Poverty Reduction Fund will support local initiatives that prevent and lift people out of poverty… Projects which may qualify for funding include those that assist groups such as single parents, newcomers and aboriginals who are disproportionately impacted by poverty, the government says. The $50-million fund will be spent over six years.
Tags: budget, ideology, immigration, Indigenous, poverty, standard of living
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A deficit-free budget, right on deadline
… it relinquished billions of dollars of revenue in tax credits, deductions, exemptions, shelters and loopholes. The Conservatives have created 68 new tax avoidance measures costing the government $155 billion a year in foregone revenue, according to the Fraser Institute. (Since the think tank released its tally, Harper has added one worth $2 billion a year.) Another drain on the federal treasury is uncollected taxes.
Tags: budget, economy, poverty, standard of living, tax
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That $75-million in ads you paid for
Is it brazen? Shameless? Unprincipled? Immoral?… the amount it spent on advertising… was $75-million a year for 2013-14, up from $69-million the previous year. This being an election year, the figure will likely be higher still. We already know that the government has allocated $7.5-million for spending to tout the budget’s virtues… Who can blame voters for being cynical?
Tags: budget, ideology, standard of living
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Three ways Liberals and NDP can win over conservative voters
… nobody likes the idea of wasting money… The voluntary National Household Survey cost $22-million more than the old census while yielding a lower-quality result. The Parliamentary Budget Office reported in 2013 that spending on the criminal justice system increased by $5-billion during the Conservatives’ first six years in government – a big spend (mostly from provincial budgets) on a problem that was improving on its own… between 2009 and 2013, the government spent over $370-million dollars on advertising
Tags: budget, child care, crime prevention, economy, ideology, immigration, participation, pharmaceutical, standard of living
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There’s nothing ‘safe’ about silencing dissent
… people are arguing that the very act of questioning positions they consider to be “right” constitutes hate speech. Academics and journalists, even ones who are advancing long-standing feminist and anti-imperialist arguments, are finding themselves blacklisted because their ideas challenge a liberal status quo.
Tags: ideology, participation, rights, standard of living
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