In a vain attempt to keep pace with the avalanche of policy announcements, I’m wading into the NDP’s proposal of a wealth tax of 1% to be applied annually to all Canadians whose net worth exceeds $20 million. A wealth tax fundamentally differs from how most taxation in Canada presently…
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This weekend’s announcement of a plan for a “Universal Tax Cut” by the Conservative party signalled the first major tax discussion of Election 43. The basic premise of this plan is to reduce the rate in the lowest federal income tax bracket from 15% to 13.75% gradually over a three…
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Why do average rent numbers always seem too low? As I work on major reports, like our recent one looking at rental wages, I have a front row seat to the shortcomings of data collection. Sometimes these shortcomings are small and inconsequential to the overall conclusions. Sometimes they are big…
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When we talk about housing affordability the focus is usually on home ownership and high housing costs. Less discussed is the affordability crisis faced by the third of Canadian households (4.7 million families) who rent their homes. This paper looks at the extent of the problem by determining the hourly…
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Today, rideshare drivers from companies like Uber and Lyft are taking part in a global strike to protest for livable wages, job security and regulated fairs, among other demands—all taking place on the eve of Uber’s initial public offering on the stock market this week. Back in Canada, bike couriers…
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While the Childcare Access and Relief from Expenses (CARE) tax credit from Budget 2019 is very similar in design to what was in the Brown platform (which means the main points from my analysis a few days ago have been reinforced), with the provincial budget now in hand I can…
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The Ontario Conservatives’ first budget is being delivered on Thursday. Normally this is the first opportunity for the public to compare the government’s plan with any promises the governing party made trying to get elected. In this case, since there was no Conservative campaign platform, and the Ford government has…
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Despite a “surprise” boost in government revenue due to the strong economy, there aren’t many big ticket items compared to previous Liberal budgets. There are actually big risks in baking big programs into the budget before an election, as all the parties can use the increased fiscal room for their…
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At the start of January we released two reports looking at corporate executive pay. The first, our annual report on the 100 richest Canadian CEOs, calculated that by 11:33 a.m. on Jan 2, Canada’s richest CEOs had already made $50,759—the amount the average worker will make in a year. The…
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Social impact bonds…they’re back in case you didn’t get enough of them here or here. This time around they are in Manitoba and it’s a $3 million program that involves doulas helping Indigenous mothers keep their kids out of foster care. As usual, the intervention itself sounds interesting and innovative. It…
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