A list of sites and articles worth reading: CCPA Senior Economist Armine Yalnizyan explains how “Income splitting won’t help families in need” in her latest Globe and Mail article. In his Globe and Mail article, “Not exactly an economic gold medal,” Jim Stanford looks at the Conservatives’ economic track record….
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Prime 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 characterize this as more of a token gift to the Canadian Federation of …
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While the education plank of the Liberal platform recognizes the increasing unaffordability of higher education for students and their families, their plan falls unnecessarily short. Unnecessary, because the amount of money promised could actually go a long way to making higher education more universally accessible. Tuition fees are on average…
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One of the common complaints about elections is that they cost money (and therefore we should have fewer of them). The last two federal elections cost around $270 million (incidentally a little less than the additional amount it would have taken for the government to meet the NDP’s GIS demands…
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I wrote the following op-ed four years ago. While the population totals and tax thresholds have changed slightly, the analysis stands. In fact, the case for income splitting is now even weaker. Back then, it would at least have allowed low-income, single-earner households to claim two basic personal credits instead…
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Income splitting? Really? That’s the Conservatives’ big plan for helping to ease the financial burden of couples with children? I’m not surprised. After all, this is the government for whom $100/month (taxable!) for each child under six is their version of a universal child care plan. Now, I won’t claim…
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During her ill-fated campaign as Prime Minister, Kim Campbell famously noted that elections are no time for serious policy debate. It comes as no surprise, then, that we are hearing more this spring about tiny tax credits for piano lessons than about Canada’s most durable and egregious social injustice. That…
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It appears likely that the Conservatives will announce a campaign promise to introduce “income-splitting”. Income splitting allows couples to divide their income between both partners for tax purposes. The Conservatives will try to depict it as a way to help Canadian families keep more of their hard-earned income. Don’t believe…
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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 a milder recession and stronger (though increasingly tepid) recovery than other advanced industrial countries. Real…
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In a rather transparent temporary fix, the pre election Budget proposes to temporarily continue existing and recently expired work-sharing arrangements and to extend two “pilot projects” for one more year rather than let them expire in short order. The pilot projects are the working while on claim project which gives workers…
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