One of the strangest arguments advanced for the Ontario government’s sell-off of revenue-generating assets is that Ontario has to do it because it can’t borrow enough to support the province’s infrastructure renewal requirements. It is a strange argument at a number of levels. First, there is absolutely no evidence that…
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If you just read the words, and didn’t look at the numbers, Ontario’s 2015 budget is a magical integration of the government’s high-profile infrastructure and pension initiatives with the need to maintain the public services that Ontarians count on. The budget devotes page after page to trumpeting the government’s commitments…
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by Sheila Block and Kaylie Tiessen Budget 2015 may be big on rhetoric, but it doesn’t deliver on the promises for strengthening public services that Premier Wynne was elected on. It is, instead, a procrastination budget; one that skilfully avoids a conversation about Ontario’s chronic revenue problem and shifts the…
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There’s already a ton of good analysis around the 2015 Federal Budget. Critics’ consensus? This budget is short-sighted, misleading and full of vote-buying measures that do little to address Canada’s real challenges. The policies and measures contained in the budget say a lot about the current government’s priorities—budgets always do….
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Call me naïve. Going into the 2015 budget lockup I figured the sale of Canada’s GM shares (that could have been used as leverage to keep GM jobs in Canada, but I digress) would go toward a new infrastructure plan for cities. The proportion of people working today is unchanged from the worst point during…
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Oil prices are down. Economic growth is down. Employment rates are stagnant. Household debt is climbing to record highs. Canadians could use a break. The 2015 federal budget has one for you. But there’s a catch. First you have to qualify: you need to be part of a couple; you…
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1. Canada’s Response to the Recession Not Best In Show, Economically Speaking We’ve heard a lot about how Canada fared better than other nations during the global economic crisis. That’s because our economy was firing on all cylinders going into recession in 2007, the year before the crisis hit. In…
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Today The Globe and Mail Report on Business published 5 economists’ thoughts on what tomorrow’s federal budget could and should do. I chose to focus on a measure that is virtually guaranteed to be in the budget, because the federal government has promised to do it since the last federal…
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Two weeks ago, Quebec’s Finance Minister was very proud to announce that Quebec had eradicated its deficit. Obviously, he refrained from going over the list of all the cuts, decreased services, and job losses that were required to reach this fiscal Holy Grail. The absurdity of putting away, year after…
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During the last provincial election campaign in September 2013, then Liberal Leader Stephen McNeil promised to make Nova Scotia “the most open and transparent province in Canada”. Are we any closer to this desired state a year and a half later? If anything, I would argue we have moved backwards,…
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