Ford’s zealous desire to privatize alcohol sales will be costly for Ontario taxpayers
Friday, July 12th, 2024
The Liquor Control Board of Ontario (LCBO)… annual profit — $2.5 billion in 2023 — goes into the public treasury, where it pays for things like health care and education… it’s doubtful that Ontarians would want to pay higher taxes so that more profits from alcohol sales could go to highly-profitable grocery store chains… Once all the LCBO’s lost revenue is factored in, the full cost to the public treasury of this privatization will likely be… close to a billion dollars.
Tags: budget, economy, ideology, privatization, tax
Posted in Delivery System | 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 »
The rich say boosting the capital gains tax will hurt productivity, but it’s just not true. Time to do a little myth-busting
Monday, June 17th, 2024
Most academic economists support a higher inclusion rate, partly because it levels the playing field between different types of capital income. But the best motivation is $20 billion in revenue it will raise over five years, to support modest new programs announced in this budget. This will help fund school lunches, affordable housing initiatives, dental care and disability benefits — while still respecting Freeland’s fiscal “guardrails.”
Tags: budget, economy, featured, ideology, standard of living, tax
Posted in Equality Policy Context | No Comments »
Pierre Poilievre’s vision for Canada: Heaven for the very rich and squat for everyone else
Friday, June 14th, 2024
… the real redistribution in recent years hasn’t been the small bit directed toward benefits for ordinary Canadians but rather the gush of money toward the wealthiest Canadians. In 2021, the richest .01 per cent saw their incomes grow on average by a stunning 30 per cent to $12.5 million a year, while the incomes of 14 million working Canadians actually declined, according to Statistics Canada.
Tags: budget, standard of living, tax
Posted in Equality Debates | No Comments »
How Canada can fix primary care crisis
Thursday, May 23rd, 2024
In every neighbourhood in the country, just as there are schools for our children, there should be a primary-care home — or centre — served by a team of doctors, nurse practitioners, nurses, dieticians, therapists, social workers, and others. Each person has an ongoing relationship with a primary-care clinician in this publicly funded team. The team is connected to other parts of the health system and social services. It’s a one-stop shop for your health related needs.
Tags: featured, Health, jurisdiction, participation
Posted in Health Delivery System | 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 »
Mark Carney had a chance to weigh in one of the defining issues facing Canada. The answer he gave suggests he isn’t ready for public life
Tuesday, May 14th, 2024
Around the world, almost no serious person continues to believe that cutting taxes on the wealthy will unlock growth for working and middle-income people. Most advanced industrial democracies are dealing with inequality and challenges to economic growth by rejecting market fundamentalism and investing in things like public transit, child care, affordable housing and ensuring that low- and middle-income people have money to spend in the local economy.
Tags: budget, economy, ideology
Posted in Debates | No Comments »
Wealthy Canadians get huge tax breaks, even with budget changes to capital gains
Thursday, April 25th, 2024
The tax system is much tougher on working people, who make up the vast majority of Canadians, including almost everyone in the lower and middle class. Working people pay taxes on their full working incomes, with few exemptions, and their taxes are deducted before they even receive their paycheques. Then there are those who own capital — stocks, bonds and other property… “A buck is a buck is a buck.” The budget’s tax changes are a small but important step in that direction.
Tags: budget, featured, ideology, standard of living, tax
Posted in Equality Policy Context | No Comments »
Canada disability benefit severely underfunded in Budget 2024 and Canadians with disabilities will pay the price
Thursday, April 25th, 2024
One-in-seven people who access food banks nationally rely on provincial disability income support. In many provinces, that means living more than $800 below the poverty line each month… it was never about seeing just another income support program come into effect. It was about extending the type of tangible support to Canadians with disabilities living in severe poverty, helping them overcome its relentless cycle.
Tags: budget, disabilities, jurisdiction, participation, poverty, standard of living
Posted in Inclusion 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 »
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