Archive for the ‘Governance Policy Context’ Category
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Ottawa’s venture capital plan: Picking winners and distorting markets
Canada needs a pro-market agenda that eliminates corporate subsidies, liberalizes ownership restrictions in protected sectors such as telecommunications and airlines, and enacts a neutral and competitive tax regime for all businesses and individuals. These policies would reduce the scope for government interference in the functioning of markets, and eliminate preferences for certain industries or businesses at the expense of their competitors or consumers.
Tags: budget, economy, globalization, ideology, privatization
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The staying power of Ontario’s deficit games
A look back at the fiscal record in the post-recession period demonstrates how assiduously the government worked to paint a picture of fiscal doom… The pattern has been one of consistent exaggeration of Ontario’s budgetary deficit. Every year the final deficit numbers turn out to be significantly lower than originally forecast… There is no structural deficit in Ontario. There is a lingering, but manageable, cyclical deficit – trumped up by a deficit crisis narrative the government itself helped fuel two years ago.
Tags: budget, economy, featured, ideology, tax
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Enemies Of The Poor [US Republicans]
The most important current policy development in America is the rollout of the Affordable Care Act, a k a Obamacare. Most Republican-controlled states are, however, refusing to implement a key part of the act, the expansion of Medicaid, thereby denying health coverage to almost five million low-income Americans. And the amazing thing is that they’re going to great lengths to block aid to the poor even though letting the aid through would cost almost nothing; nearly all the costs of Medicaid expansion would be paid by Washington.
Tags: Health, ideology, poverty, standard of living, tax
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Court challenges show Harper governing in shadow of Trudeau’s Charter of Rights
Court challenges by First Nations are likely to stop the Northern Gateway pipeline. Judges have ruled mandatory sentencing for gun crimes violate the charter and refused to impose victim surcharge fees… immigration reforms were restrained by charter rulings on refugees’ rights. And on the key social questions of our era – same-sex marriage, prostitution, drugs, assisted suicide – the Harper government has been unwilling to stand down the judges…
Tags: crime prevention, ideology, immigration, Indigenous, rights
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Flaherty missive misleading [equalization]
The accord agreement expires next year and the Harper government has shown no interest in extending it or even meeting with the provinces to discuss it. Their interest appears to be in cutbacks. This… is particularly disturbing when coming from a minister of a government that continues bit by bit to withdraw from any responsibilities at a federal level for the protection or maintenance of our public health care system.
Tags: budget, ideology, jurisdiction, standard of living, tax
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Stephen Harper’s historic tax-cutting legacy
Ottawa has been afflicted with tax-cutting mania for many years now. This began under the prime ministership of Jean Chrétien and continued under Paul Martin, at a time when the feds were awash in surpluses. But it has reached its zenith under Harper. Tax cuts have been the defining feature of the Harper record, and have been pursued regardless of the state of the federal balance sheet… a tax jihad of this magnitude, like all wars, drains the treasury… on the order of $45 billion annually in foregone revenue.
Tags: budget, ideology, tax
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Now the hard work begins: Keeping provincial budgets balanced
… fiscal readjustment has had a negative but unavoidable impact on Canadian economic growth. The government sector is now the lagging edge of the economy. It is projected to grow by 1 per cent in 2013 and just 0.4 per cent in 2014, and is a major reason why the Canadian economy is growing at an annual rate of less than 2 per cent over all.
Tags: budget, economy, globalization, Health, ideology, immigration, standard of living, tax
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Ottawa needs to fix a broken provincial transfer payment System
The cap on equalization payments should be removed. This would allow the program to operate as intended, while likely using up less than one-tenth of Ottawa’s long-term fiscal room. A complementary approach… would be for the federal government to tie some of its other transfers to overall provincial revenue-raising capacity… Unfortunately, the federal government is moving in the opposite direction – in favour of equal per-capita cash transfers, under the guise of fairness.
Tags: budget, economy, jurisdiction, standard of living, tax
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By 2015, Harper will have shrunk government to smallest size in 50 years
For those who see a broader role for government in the lives of Canadians, the data could bolster arguments that Ottawa’s current tax levels are outside the historical norm and could be raised to cover new spending. It could also translate into calls for future surpluses to be spent on programs rather than tax cuts. Raising taxes is a tough sell in politics, which means the Conservatives have slowly and steadily tied their opponents’ hands.
Tags: budget, ideology, tax
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Could Ottawa’s balanced budget help provinces reduce deficits?
The federal government… plans to shrink the federal role further, making future federal tax cuts virtually inevitable. However, it is an open question as to whether the total tax burden should decline before provincial deficits are eliminated… Government borrowing today will result in higher debt payments in the future, either through interest or principal repayment. Thus, deficits benefit current taxpayers at the expense of future ones.
Tags: budget, economy, ideology, standard of living, youth
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