Co-authored with Brian Foster “Is the EI system making it more attractive to not work?” That’s the (attempt at) thought-provoking (or fire-stoking) title of a recent National Post piece, written in the aftermath of Jim Flaherty’s intellectually lazy and socially irresponsible public musings on the psychological, voluntaristic reasons for Canada’s unemployment…
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Saskatchewan’s Minister of Energy and Resources replied to my op-ed and letter on Dutch disease and resource royalties. On Friday, he was promoted to Minister of Everything. Columnist Murray Mandryk wrote, “Given the amount of power Bill Boyd now has in his super-economy portfolio, he may be one fluffy Persian…
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Anglo Canada is sticking its fingers in its ears and humming a happy song. Many in the English-speaking punditocracy and media (or perhaps mediocracy?) are doing their best to persuade us that student protests in Quebec are nothing of any consequence. This is getting a little harder to do, now…
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The Conservative government is making changes to the Employment Insurance (EI) regime. While previous changes to EI have tightened eligibility requirements, making it more difficult for workers to collect EI if they lose their job, the current proposals focus on making it harder for unemployed workers to turn down work…
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Changes to the EI rules announced by the government today are not rooted in any lengthy policy rationale. But Minister Finley and and the media release spoke to the need to “strengthen work incentives.” This conjures up images of unemployed workers sitting around and spurning job offers amidst growing labour…
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Much has been written of late about the costs of inequality — the social and health costs, the costs to democracy and social cohesion, and the costs to the economy and productivity. But here’s another cost to rising inequality that has received less consideration — the costs to our climate….
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Discussions about how to frame social issues in Canada are often left to communications professionals, but so many times it’s the people on the front lines of public service who have a lot to contribute to this endeavour. Take Saskatoon physician Ryan Meili. He has cleverly woven his front-line experiences…
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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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Today, Statistics Canada reported an annual inflation rate of 2%, precisely in line with the Bank of Canada’s target. With inflation under control and renewed risks to the global economy, there is little rationale for the central bank to raise interest rates anytime soon. In fact, the Bank of Canada…
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I’ve commented on federal job cuts many times before (here, here, here & here) and in the interests of flogging this particular horse (no animals were harmed in the writing of these reports), the CCPA today is releasing my latest update on the matter: Clearing away the fog: Government Estimates…
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