At Wednesday’s post-election press conference, Justin Trudeau laid out some of his new government’s priorities, pledging that his first act of parliament would be to lower middle-class taxes. This new middle-class tax cut is not to be confused with the 2015 iteration that cut taxes most for those making over…
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I’ve speculated in earlier posts that many of the promises made by parties during the federal election campaign were expensive, and I was curious about how they’d pay for them. Of course, there are always three choices: run a larger deficit, raise taxes or cut services. The NDP and the…
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This is an update to an earlier post that examined only the Conservative “universal tax cut”. I now have had a bit more time to model the Liberal version and compare the two head to head. These results are also highlighted in a recent Macleans article on the topic. As…
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There was a lot of talk in last night’s debate about budgets, deficits, and program funding. So it seemed like a good time to look at the aggregate impact of the party platforms. In other words, let’s talk about deficits. The release of the Liberal platform came with much consternation…
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If you think that in a country as rich as Canada no child lives in poverty, unfortunately you’d be wrong. Back in 1989, the House of Commons voted to end child poverty by 2000. Spoiler alert: they’re late. Campaign 2000 has been working for 30 years to achieve that goal,…
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Duelling platform planks appear to be a theme in this election. My last blog looked at CMHC mortgage insurance changes endorsed by both the NDP and the Conservatives. Today’s analysis looks at the Liberals’ and Conservatives’ proposed versions of non-taxation of EI parental benefits. The Conservatives want to offer a…
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The announcements are coming fast and furious now. The latest today from the Conservatives promised to “review” the mortgage stress test and lengthen amortization periods for mortgage loan insurance for first-time buyers. It seems that the NDP might also be in favour of 30-year amortizations, based on a statement from…
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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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