Innovation™ has become both a rebranding exercise and an apology for a host of regressive corporate practices that look suspiciously like business as usual. But let’s be clear: there is nothing unconventional or remotely innovative about corporations that rationalize exploitation—of a workforce, of political connections, of rules that exist to…
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In a CBC story about the CCPA’s January 4 executive compensation report, one of the go-to critics quoted in the piece resorted to a well-worn cliché to back up his dismissal of concerns about high CEO salaries. Edwin Locke of the University of Maryland said “a good CEO is worth…
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The media often talks about workers’ and student unions, but rarely about professional corporations. In a study published late in 2015, we asked ourselves if they we functioning properly, i.e. if they were aptly fulfilling their mission to protect the public. We realized that there were a number of important…
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Over the past 10 years, the CCPA has documented annually the average pay of the highest-paid 100 CEOs of companies listed on the Toronto Stock Exchange as well as the relationship between that average and the annual employment earnings of a Canadian earning the average weekly wage for a full…
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Following the revelation of Volkswagen’s interesting and creative approach to compliance with emissions standards affecting its diesel-powered cars, conversation has focused on two questions: who is to blame, and how much should Volkswagen have to pay in fines and compensation? The answer to the first is certainly not the chair…
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VW’s house of lies about dirty emissions from “clean” diesel cars isn’t a scandal as much as a syndrome, fallout from a belief that less government, more market will produce the best results. But “self-regulation” is producing worse results over time; and the “fix” that governments are coming up with…
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What a surprise! The NDP makes a proposal for a very modest increase in corporate tax rates – not even to their level before Stephen Harper took office – and defenders of all things corporate in Canada turn on their scary corporate tax number generating machine and produce – wait…
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According to many mainstream (neoclassical) economists, cutting corporate income tax (CIT) rates is wise public policy. By reducing the cost of capital, more of it will be supplied, and because investment is a key driver of growth, reducing CIT rates leaves firms with more after-tax income to plough into growth-expanding…
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In a televised exchange with Michel Nadeau of the Institute for gouvernance of private and public organizations (IGOPP), I stated that public corporation executives’ level of compensation functioned just like a ransom. The discussion heated up, and I did not have the chance to explain what I meant when I…
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The shaky economy seems to have prompted Canada’s CEOs to pontificate on what steps should be—nay, must be—taken to solve our economic woes as a nation. Case in point: on Monday, the Canadian Council of Chief Executives (CCCE) released a paper titled “Career ready: Towards a national strategy for the…
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