Posts Tagged ‘tax’
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A throne speech short on words, long on ambition
… this is a radical government. Expanding the Canada Pension Plan, pricing carbon, reforming the electoral system, adopting all 94 recommendations of the Truth & Reconciliation Commission, combining four different child benefits into one $23-billion plan: whatever else may be said about it, this is indeed “real change.” Much… will depend on cooperation from the provinces: the carbon pricing plan, CPP expansion, a new health accord… [and] the state of the federal government’s finances.
Tags: budget, globalization, ideology, Indigenous, jurisdiction, participation, tax
Posted in Governance Debates | No Comments »
Inequality: Good, Bad and Benign
Poverty and inequality are often treated interchangeably in public debate but in fact are quite different things. Rising poverty generally has not been the source of the recent rise in inequality… the rich may have been getting richer, and the super-rich super-richer, but in most places the poor have not been getting poorer. Despite the widespread uplift, however, acute misery is hardly unknown in our societies. But its source is not growth at the top of the income distribution but deprivation and desperation at the bottom.
Tags: economy, featured, globalization, ideology, poverty, standard of living, tax
Posted in Equality Debates | No Comments »
Whacking the top one per cent with a tax hike not the bonanza Liberals hype
The notion that what fairness demanded most of all was a tax cut for the middle class — as opposed to a tax cut for the lowest class — was always a bit of a stretch. Had the Liberals cut the 15 per cent bottom rate, of course, they could have done both, since the cut would benefit not only those in the bottom bracket but also those above it. But since the point of the exercise was to bribe the middle, they were not about to waste precious dollars on the poor.
Tags: economy, featured, ideology, jurisdiction, tax
Posted in Equality Delivery System | No Comments »
Doctors, lawyers concerned about small-business tax changes
… to ensure “Canadian-Controlled Private Corporation (CCPC) status is not used to reduce personal income tax obligations for high-income earners.” … the Liberals could reduce or eliminate the small-business tax deduction for these businesses and could also eliminate the ability to split income through dividend-paying shares issued to spouses and adult offspring. For CCPCs that currently use these tax breaks, the changes could be significant.
Tags: economy, featured, ideology, privatization, tax
Posted in Policy Context | No Comments »
Trudeau’s Liberals a government without excuses
Besides a budget close to balance, Mr. Trudeau’s Liberals have low interest rates, low inflation and manageable unemployment. They have a country which finds itself, despite the divide-and-conquer politics of Stephen Harper, in an unusual state of harmony… Justin Trudeau has a low-growth economy, a low revenue stream, depressed commodity prices. No cakewalk is in store, but compared to the others, he has so little to lament, so much to build on.
Tags: economy, ideology, standard of living, tax
Posted in Governance History | No Comments »
Restore GST rate to pay for government agenda
At seven per cent, the GST rate was already comparably low: Australia’s is 10 per cent, New Zealand’s 15 per cent, and the U.K.’s comparable VAT (value-added tax) at 20 per cent… many tens of billions of dollars in government revenue have been forfeited over the past eight years as a result of the cuts. This is money that could have gone toward reducing the national debt, or alleviating poverty on native reserves, or funding infrastructure, or relocating refugees.
Tags: budget, economy, featured, ideology, tax
Posted in Governance Debates | No Comments »
How the Liberals can pay for their platform
The first is to clean up the tax credits, deductions, exemptions and deferrals (known collectively as “tax expenditures”) that cost Ottawa billions of dollars. The Conservatives brought in at least 70 of them… A second alternative is to stop spending money on… jailing young offenders for drug possession and other non-violent crimes… building mega prisons… buying top-of-the-line stealth fighter jets; or airing prime-time government ads. A third choice is to terminate, or substantially scale back, corporate subsidies.
Tags: budget, economy, featured, ideology, standard of living, tax
Posted in Governance Debates | No Comments »
Pharmacare should be at the top of Trudeau’s agenda
National standards for universal coverage of medically necessary prescription drugs would… satisfy a central goal of pharmaceutical policy: ensuring all Canadians have equitable access to necessary care. Instituting such standards would bring Canada up to par in the developed world. Guided by best available evidence, such coverage would also foster safer, more appropriate use of medicines – potentially making Canada a world leader in the quality of medicine use… [it is] not only the ethical thing to do, it can also be the economically responsible thing to do.
Tags: budget, disabilities, Health, mental Health, pharmaceutical, poverty, standard of living, tax
Posted in Health Policy Context | 1 Comment »
The Liberals’ taxing challenge
The Liberals, had they been willing, could have proposed raising the GST back to 7 per cent, and had plenty of money to pay for their middle-class tax cut, offsets for low-income earners and spending in whatever configuration they chose. Economists would have cheered, but not likely the voters… what is sorely needed: a group outside government examining the Canadian tax system that is now shot full with distortions.
Tags: budget, economy, featured, ideology, tax
Posted in Governance Debates | No Comments »
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