I was one of the three judges for the inaugural Canadian incarnation of the Hillman Prize for Investigative Journalism. Sidney Hillman was a founding organizer of the garment union in the U.S., and left a legacy that has been used to fund an annual U.S. award for reporters who take the time & risk to dig up the real dirt […]
Read moreThe Conservatives are stressing their supposed credentials as “economic managers” in their strategy to win a majority — combined with fear-mongering about a future coalition (although that latter part of the strategy may be backfiring on them). I’ve argued before that claims about Canada’s superior performance are not factually correct, especially when we correct for faster population growth here (which […]
Read morePrime Minister Harper today re-announced the 2011 Budget proposal to introduce a one year program to reduce EI employer premiums by up to $1,000 for small businesses which expand employment in 2011 compared to 2010. I would characterise this as more of a token gift to the Canadian Federation of Independent Business than a serious job creation measure. The credit […]
Read moreSince the Conservatives are promising income splitting, it may be worth revisiting some classic Relentlessly Progressive Economics posts on the subject. Some of the links we posted four years ago no longer work, so my Ottawa Citizen op-ed is reproduced below. While the population totals and tax thresholds have changed slightly, the analysis stands. The Conservatives have somewhat limited the […]
Read more(I have also posted this to the new CCPA election blog which plans to run fairly short non technical pieces over the next month.) Â Harper’s key framing argument is that a stable majority is needed to maintain an economic recovery which would be derailed by a coalition. I find this more than a little ironic. Canada has indeed had […]
Read moreI missed last week’s federal budget, but was pleased to see the quantity and quality of same-day analysis posted on this blog. Jim wrote an excellent piece, “Corporate Taxation and Investment in the 2011 Federal Budget,†about the corporate tax debate in post-budget media panels. But what struck me was David’s point about how the budget itself did not address […]
Read moreI just want to draw attention to the rules and April 30th deadline for this year’s PEF Student Essay Contest. Please put up this poster at your local university campus.
Read moreJeremy Leonard, research director of IRPP, suggests in today’s Globe that CPP retirement benefits be cut to balance the federal books, or at least he is cited to that effect by Barrie McKenna. “That doesn’t mean there aren’t major savings to be wrung out of spending. Mr. Leonard, for example, suggested that reforms to the Canada Pension Plan could achieve […]
Read moreAmidst all the frenetic disarray of budget day, I had an interesting and informative exchange on CBC’s Power & Politics with John Manley, former Liberal Finance and Industry Minister, and now chief lobbyist for Canada’s corporate elite (as President and Chief Executive of the Canadian Council of Chief Executives).
Read moreHere is the CLC Budget Analysis At this point the economics of the budget are so overwhelmed by the uncertain political calculations that one hesitates to add to the discussion. There are a few modest half good things here in response to demands from labour and the left. $300 Million earmarked for the poorest of poor seniors is not to […]
Read moreThe 2011 federal budget was clearly designed to fail and provoke an election. It only went part way to meet some of the opposition parties’ priorities while also showering the country with dozens of different politically opportunistic relatively minor spending measures, extensions of expiring programs and boutique tax cuts.  Quite appropriately, it became D.O.A.–and now we’ll soon be into an election. What’s concerning […]
Read moreBack in 1995 Finance Minister Paul Martin introduced a budget that reshaped fiscal federalism and retrenched the scope of the welfare state in Canada. It envisioned a dramatically smaller role for the federal government, a role that was permanently in question through the process of ongoing program review. It was Paul Martin’s permanent revolution, for the federal public service. Today’s […]
Read moreIf you take a look at this year’s budget and you have an issue that you’re interested in, chances are you’ll find it on the list. There are in fact almost twice as many items on this year’s budget list as the large 2009 stimulus budget. There are some items on seniors, some items on EI, some items for kids, […]
Read moreAll eyes may be on Ottawa when the federal budget is released this afternoon, but it isn’t the only government tabling its budget today.   New Brunswick’s new Conservative government will also be tabling its first budget today–and it’s expected to include austerity spending cuts at the same time that they proceed with further corporate tax cuts.    The following is an […]
Read moreWith the Alternative Federal Budget (AFB) officially released, you’d think the budget gnomes at the CCPA would have some much deserved time off. Â Unfortunately with the snow still falling in Ottawa, we figured we’d put them back to work. Every year, the AFB puts together ideas from all of the partners involved. Â Once everything is said and done, those ideas […]
Read moreMy recent post on public sector pay elicited a lot of comments, including a fair few based on the right-wing premise that the public sector is an unproductive burden on the private sector. I have always found this ascription of productivity to the public and private sectors to be deeply misleading in that it conceals the profound interdependence and interpenetration […]
Read moreAdvocates of low potash royalties have floated some pretty bizarre arguments. Last week, the Saskatchewan Party put out a news release emphasizing that local farmers use some 0.6% of provincial potash output, as though this tiny sliver of domestic consumption somehow complicates the province’s interest in maximizing revenue as a potash producer. Equally strange are claims that Alberta’s oil and […]
Read moreKeith Dunne and I have an opinion piece out on what we consider to be one of the best-kept secrets in Canadian social policy: Danny Williams’ post-secondary education (PSE) legacy. Among other things, the piece points out that: -Since 2003, the Newfoundland and Labrador government has increased funding for PSE by 82 percent. -Average tuition fees for domestic students in […]
Read more          I recently debated Ottawa Citizen columnist and MacDonald-Laurier Institute honcho John Robson on BNN regarding the role of unions in society. It was a rather nasty exchange, as these things go: he’s a smart, aggressive, neo-con who was on the offensive from the opening introductions:          A few days later, he lampooned me in a column, titled “An Economic […]
Read moreIglika reported to me that Kevin Milligan made the argument in favour of the HST that its presence was economically beneficial because it induces additional investment on the margin, as projects that previously did not meet a certain profit threshold would become real investments. This is a net gain (forget about who benefits from those investments) even if the vast […]
Read moreThis piece was initially posted on the Globe and Mail’s online business feature, Economy Lab. Join the comments section! For 18 years I’ve been part of a national project in participatory budgeting called the Alternative Federal Budget. Each year dozens of national and community organizations representing millions of Canadians convene over a six month period, debating and costing out measures […]
Read more(Here’s a piece that will be in the next quarterly Economic Climate for Bargaining publication I produce, also posted on the CUPE website in pdf format.) There’s a widely held myth now accepted by many people—that public spending in Canada has increased steeply and is growing at unaffordable and unsustainable rates. In fact, the opposite is true. The latest figures […]
Read moreAnother reason for that intolerably high public sector compensation premium — Further to my earlier post showing that the public/private sector pay gap is mainly due to more equal pay for women in service jobs, a recent piece from Canadian Public Policy by Hou and Coulombe shows that the pay gap between Canadian born racialized workers and non racialized workers […]
Read moreToday’s Globe has a long article by Konrad Yakabuski on the potential for a Wisconsin style attack on Canadian public sector workers. It’s hard to challenge his argument that this is very much in prospect, and indeed we seem set for a debate – or a series of national, provincial and municipal debates – on the allegedly large superiority of pay and […]
Read moreMore from Sylvain: The part-time rate in February 2011 -Â 19.7% of the workforce working part-time – fell just short of the highest levels ever recorded in July and August 2010. Not only has part-time work risen in the recession and recovery, it has been clearly driven by the lack of full-time jobs. 265,900 non-seasonally adjusted part time jobs were […]
Read moreAnalysis from my colleague Sylvan Schetagne .. The Canadian economy in February 2011 had fewer full-time jobs, but more part-time, self employment and temporary work. These are not signs of a strong job recovery. The unemployment rate remained stable at 7.8%, but job quality decreased significantly last month. The number of full-time jobs was down by 23,800 while part-time work […]
Read moreIn a couple of recent posts, I threw down the gauntlet for PotashCorp to disclose how much corporate income tax and Crown royalties it paid to the Government of Saskatchewan. As Bruce Johnstone reports, it has finally done so: While PotashCorp paid $77 million in resource surcharges in 2010, it also paid $82 million in corporate income taxes and $70 […]
Read moreI attended an interesting forum on the economic outlook yesterday afternoon. Organized by Canada 2020, the speakers were noted US economist Brad DeLong (UCal Berkley, former senior Treasury official under Clinton, and Paul Krugman soul mate on macro issues at least), and our own David Dodge (who needs no intro.). De Long’s main focus was on the US, and his […]
Read moreI have no informed view on the merits or downsides of this proposed takeover of the Toronto exchange, but find it interesting the degree to which the Canadian corporate and political elites have again  fractured on the issue of foreign ownership of “strategic” assets. This is an interesting piece from the Financial Times of London. Most of the banks led […]
Read moreMichael Lewis has a great article in today’s Toronto Star about the windfall that banks are reaping from corporate tax cuts. He quotes three of our favourite bloggers: Toby Sanger, Armine Yalnizyan and Jim Stanford. He also cites a BMO Capital Markets report that I shared with him. Since BMO appears to have removed this document from its website, I […]
Read more