Behind The Numbers delivers timely, progressive commentary on issues that affect Canadians, including the economy, poverty, inequality, climate change, budgets, taxes, public services, employment and much more. Contributors include staff and research associates from the Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives (CCPA). The views expressed on this blog are those of the individual contributors, and do not necessarily represent the views of the CCPA. Read more…
There is a nice little story tucked in to the pages of Canada’s Economic Action Plan 2013. It’s a sweet tale of Thomas and Colleen and their two children. (I like to imagine those little stick-figure stickers on the back of their mini-van waving hello to their friends in happy economic-action-plan-land). This story is called “Canadian families keep more of their hard-earned dollars as a result of the government’s actions to reduce the tax burden.”
4 CommentsTags: Federal Budget·Gender Equality·Taxes and Tax Cuts
Some myths are just so hard to debunk. For instance, people in Québec generally assume that they are the most taxed in North America. IRIS tackled the well-rehearsed allegation in a recently published socio-economic notice. The reply resounded of what Edward S. Herman and Noam Chomsky have presented in Manufacturing Consent as flak. Here’s a short demonstration of how strongly myths are defended in Québec nowadays.
Myth busting
Our demonstration was quite simple. We compared tax rates in various countries using OECD methodology. At the OECD, they compare the net tax burden for eight typical households. We calculated the net tax burden of all eight OECD-selected households (explained in Table 1) in Québec and compared each with the net tax burden found in the other countries.
No CommentsTags: income tax·Media·quebec
Time flies and our Alternative Federal Budget is now in its 19th year. Year after year it has shown that we can have a Canada where we all do better together.
This year the AFB is more inclusive than ever with 27 chapters written by over 90 contributors each laying out progressive policy ideas ready for implementation. All policy proposals are fully costed and put within a realistic macro-economic framework to determine their impact on the deficit, debt and employment.
2 CommentsTags: Alternative Federal Budget·Government Finance
The Fraser Institute has a new report warning Ontario could become the next Greece or California because of the size of its debt.
Of course we know Ontario is not Greece or California, and such comparisons are disingenuous.
But it is possible that Ontario could find itself in a similar mess if it follows the Fraser Institute’s standard issue prescription for government financial management: more public spending cuts, more public sector layoffs, and more tax cuts.
Theoretically, Ontario could cut public spending even more than it already has. It could fire doctors and nurses, teachers and cops. It could close down hospitals, shut down schools, close child care centres.
1 CommentTags: Austerity·debt·Deficit·Income Inequality·Ontario
Statistics Canada released new data yesterday on high income trends in Canada with nary a mention of the Atlantic Provinces. From a Canadian comparative perspective, the data told a story that was more striking for most of the rest of the country and in particular, Alberta, Ontario, BC and Quebec where 92% of the top 1% of tax filers are found, with only 3.4% in Atlantic Canada.
The inequality that exists in Atlantic Canada also tells a story that demands illustration.
These data reveal that the Atlantic Provinces are all significantly less equal today than they were in 1982. The trends are troubling, but not surprising.
1 CommentTags: Atlantic Canada·New Brunswick·Newfoundland and Labrador·Nova Scotia·PEI
An op-ed of mine was published by the Vancouver Sun today:
What’s next for BC’s carbon tax?
Climate change forced its way onto the political agenda in 2012, as Hurricane Sandy ripped through the northeast United Stages just days before the election. And while action remains frustratingly slow, extreme weather disasters in the billions of dollars are making a statement that politicians can no longer ignore. The costs of our addiction to fossil fuels are starting to pile up, and we cannot afford to keep dithering.
Interest in Canadian “Social impact Bonds” has spiked following HRSDC Minster Finley announcement that the federal government is investigating them for use in Canada. I’ve already commented on the story in The Toronto Star and on The Current (min 16) but I wanted to write my thoughts up in a fuller blog post for readers.
So what is a “Social Impact Bond”? The idea is that a banker or foundation decides to fund a particular service or program. When (you’ll see why I say “when” and not “if” below) the program hits its goals, the government pays the funder back all they invested and includes a profit margin of somewhere in the neighbourhood of 7%-15% on top of the initial investment.
(Apologies if others have commented on this previously.)
The 2011 Tax Expenditures report by the federal Department of Finance includes an analysis of the progressivity of the federal personal income tax system.
What I find striking is just how weak the federal personal income tax is as a tool for shifting income from the affluent to the less affluent.
Table 8 shows that the top 20% of taxpayers have 54.2% of pre tax income, and 50.6% of after tax income. Meanwhile, the bottom 40% have 9.7% of before tax income and 12.0% of after tax income. So, in and of itself there is not a lot of redistribution going on despite the fact that the effective tax rate does increase somewhat in line with rising income.
The US federal budget is back in the spotlight now that the election is over. In one sense, not much has changed in that the Republicans continue to hold the House, the Democrats the Senate and White House. But what we are now witnessing is the culmination of budget deals going back to the first Bush II administration, right up to last year’s “debt ceiling” debacle. There is a lot on the table, and what we see over the coming weeks and months will be a classic left-right battle over the role of government in modern society. The US continues to struggle with the job of building a modern state that includes robust social infrastructure for health care, education and retirement.
A new paper by Jack Mintz ( with Duanjie Chen) argues that “corporate tax reductions of more than 30% since 2000 have, contrary to the critics’ cries, failed to make an appreciable dent in tax revenues thanks to multinationals habit of shifting profits to Canada to take advantage of lower rates.”
This is the subject of a report in ipolitics, contrasting the argument of Mintz and Chen report to last year’s “Corporate Tax Freedom Day” report by the Canadian Labour Congress
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