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Ottawa should do the math: Productivity trumps head counts
Tuesday, April 24th, 2012
Apr. 23, 2012
…the problem with government isn’t so much payroll as productivity. Make a single percentage-point increase in efficiency in the federal work force annually for 10 years – and you would save 40,000 jobs: once again, with no loss in either quality or quantity. (Alternatively, as some people would see it, the government could increase services by 10 per cent with no increase in payroll.) … The public sector is Canada’s largest industry by far, administering one-third of the country’s entire economy. Excused from the need to get productive, it constitutes a constant drag on economic growth.
Tags: budget, economy, standard of living
Posted in Governance Delivery System | 1 Comment »
Ontario’s budget by the numbers
Tuesday, April 24th, 2012
Mar. 29, 2012
The Government of Ontario tabled its annual budget on March 24, asking everyone from affluent seniors to corporations to help the government tackle its deficit. Find charts and graphs below detailing the province’s revenue, spending, debt, proposals and projections for the years ahead. [See Infographic.]
Tags: budget, economy, ideology, standard of living
Posted in Governance Delivery System | No Comments »
Your 2012 federal budget explained
Tuesday, April 24th, 2012
Apr. 02, 2012
Stephen Harper’s 2012 federal budget was released on March 29, offering a roadmap for Canada under the direction of the Conservative’s first majority. Use this infographic to explore the revenue, expenses, proposals and projections from the budget. Read all of The Globe’s in-depth coverage by clicking here.
Tags: budget
Posted in Governance Delivery System | No Comments »
Buffett Rule a good place to start
Saturday, April 21st, 2012
Apr 20 2012
Warren Buffett, the billionaire critic of U.S. tax policy, started it all by lamenting that his tax rate is lower than his secretary’s. A secretary who has a few hundred or thousand more dollars in disposable income is likely to spend it, whether on food or on sending a kid to college. This spending will stimulate the economy. People who make, say, $5 million a year might use a tax break to splurge on an extra house, but they also will probably invest in financial instruments that are more likely to drive layoffs to increase a company’s profit margin than they are to create jobs.
Tags: ideology, standard of living, tax
Posted in Equality Debates | No Comments »
What liberals can learn from conservatives
Saturday, April 21st, 2012
Apr. 21, 2012
The Righteous Mind, is a must-read for anyone who’s dumbfounded that Stephen Harper got to be prime minister, or that so many of his obviously stupid policies are so popular, or that Albertans appear to be on the verge of electing a party full of bigots and climate-change deniers… conservatives and liberals operate with two quite different moral systems. Liberals are almost exclusively concerned with harm and fairness… Conservatives have a wider moral palate. They are also concerned with loyalty, authority and sanctity
Tags: ideology
Posted in Governance Debates | No Comments »
Students should pay for the entire cost of education — later
Saturday, April 21st, 2012
Apr 20, 2012
… it’s cash flow that’s the issue, not the amount. So: What if, instead of paying tuition now, students could pay it later? That is, what if they were staked all or most of the money up front, and repaid it over the course of their working life? Only what if, instead of repaying principal plus interest in fixed amounts, as with conventional loans, they paid a share of their earnings? As they earned more, they’d pay more; as they earned less, they’d pay less. The model is not new. It’s sometimes called an income contingent loan, or a graduate tax. But in reality, it’s not a loan or a tax. It’s an investment.
Tags: budget, ideology, standard of living, youth
Posted in Education Delivery System | No Comments »
Special consideration for aboriginals in the courts is a matter of fairness
Friday, April 20th, 2012
Apr. 20, 2012
Proportionality between the offence and the punishment is a traditional and, indeed, fundamental purpose of sentencing. It applies to all offenders. Many may have preferred the three-year sentence and that, if errors are made, they be made on the side of public safety. But where does this argument stop? Indeterminate detention would eliminate more risk. But it is fundamental in a democracy that people be sentenced for what they have done – not what they may do.
Tags: corrections, crime prevention, ideology, rights
Posted in Equality Debates | No Comments »
How the Charter helped define Canada
Wednesday, April 18th, 2012
Apr. 16, 2012
Many things contributed to the Charter’s central role in our constitutional democracy. At least three were counterintuitive: The notwithstanding clause… The three-year moratorium on equality rights… [and] The Court Challenges Program… Led by the Supreme Court, the Canadian judiciary has defined its proper place in constitutional governance. First assertive and willing to undertake substantive review of legislation, it has set a predictable framework for acceptable limitations on rights and avoided an adversarial relationship with Parliament, preferring dialogue to confrontation.
Tags: ideology, rights, standard of living
Posted in Governance History | 1 Comment »
Taxing the rich akin to ‘ethnic cleansing’ – seriously?
Sunday, April 15th, 2012
Apr. 15, 2012
The top 1 per cent of Canadians pocketed nearly 14 per cent of all income in 2007, compared with 8 per cent in 1982… The most commonly heard argument against taxing the rich is that it’s an attack on wealth-creators; the rich will simply move to lower tax jurisdictions or work less… The middle class is being squeezed by stagnant incomes, pension clawbacks and the steady erosion of government entitlements, such as Old Age Security. Basic fairness suggests all segments of society should share the burden.
Tags: ideology, tax
Posted in Equality Debates | No Comments »
Health and wealth [income & taxation]
Sunday, April 15th, 2012
Apr. 14, 2012
Hospitals would voluntarily adopt an evidence-based framework to guide boards’ decisions about CEO base compensation… An arbitrary policy that would damage the leadership of these important public institutions is in nobody’s interest. – vs – Ontario’s highest personal income tax bracket (46 per cent) has not been this low since the Great Depression. This rate starts at $132,000, so it’s a flat tax for the rich. Billionaires pay the same rate as doctors. Conversely, the budget freezes social assistance rates – despite these payments’ buying 60 per cent less than in 1995… It’s time for high-earning Canadians to pay our fair share. Tax us. Canada is worth it.
Tags: budget, Health, ideology, tax
Posted in Equality Debates | No Comments »
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