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…
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(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…
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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…
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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…
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The Minister leading up BC’s Carbon Tax Review, Kevin Falcon, may be gone – his departure came just as the deadline for submissions was closing – but the carbon tax lives on. For now. Back in 2008 when the carbon tax was announced, it was scheduled to rise from an…
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Kudos to Bank of Canada Governor Mark Carney for raising the profile of the over $500 billion Canadian corporations are holding in excess cash surpluses and not investing in the economy, which garnered front page coverage (and kudos to the CAW for inviting him to speak). It’s not the first time he’s…
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It’s difficult to overstate the significance of the Quebec student strike (the longest in North American history) and resultant public backlash against the provincial government’s Orwellian response. Not that you’d know it. According to mainstream (predominantly) English media, Montreal is being held hostage by a handful of scruffy, possibly naked,…
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Well, another so-called “Tax Freedom Day” came and went on June 12th. To mark the “occasion” I decided to skip over the very serious methodological flaws in the calculation of tax freedom day that others have pointed out, and take a look at some of the items that Canadians are…
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Trish Hennessy is Director of Strategic Issues with the Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives. Several polls released this spring reveal the extent of concern among Canadians about worsening income inequality. Most Canadians say that deep income inequality undermines Canadian values. The majority of Canadians tell pollsters they would support political…
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Last week, I had the following letter in The Globe and Mail: Oil sands royalties The Canadian Association of Petroleum Producers’ most recent Statistical Handbook indicates that, in 2010, this industry sold $101-billion of oil and gas but paid only $12-billion in resource royalties. Even Senator Pamela Wallin’s higher figure…
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