National Office

More than ever, Canada needs a budget that allows us to take back our fu­ture and to restore a sense of the public good — a sense that we can do bet­ter together rather than continuing on the dead-end path of austerity and market-driv­en “solutions” that don’t benefit the major­ity of Canadians.

Since 1994, the Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives has produced such a vision. Each year, the Alternative Federal Budget (AFB) is created with the participation and support of researchers, activists, and a broad spectrum of civil society leadership — representing millions of people living in Canada.

The AFB is about demythologizing budget-making. It's about public accountability and collaboration. And it's about the millions of people living and working in Canada. This alternative vision demonstrates in a concrete and compelling way that by working together, we can do better. 

On March 12, the CCPA will release the 2013 Alternative Federal Budget. And this year, you can help!

Here's how:

• Join our Thunderclap (What's a Thunderclap? Find out here.)
• Like us on Facebook and share our posts (There will be infographics!)
• Follow, comment, and re-tweet us on Twitter, and use the tag #afb2013 to tell us about the kind of budget you want for Canada! 

A new study published by the CCPA and the Polaris Institute shows how the failure to carefully regulate the bitumen industry is putting Canada on a dangerous economic and environmental trajectory.

The study, by Tony Clarke, Jim Stanford, Diana Gibson, and Brendan Haley,
shows that the current bitumen path is creating the double threat: a “staples trap,” whereby the faster Canada exports its bitumen, the less diversified, productive and resilient the economy becomes;” and a “carbon trap,” which locks Canada into an carbon dependent development path, making the costs of future climate adaptation much more difficult.

The Bitumen Cliff: Lessons and Challenges of Bitumen Mega-Developments for Canada's Economy in an Age of Climate Change presents a wealth of empirical data indicating the negative side effects of unregulated bitumen developments for Canada’s trade, exchange rate, productivity, and income distribution performance and proposes a two-track approach to steer away from the “bitumen cliff."

Click here to download the full report. You can also read more in the following commentaries:

• Heading off the bitumen cliff, Straight Goods News 
• The false gods that are Alberta’s oilsands: Walkom, The Toronto Star

According to a new study by CCPA economists Marc Lee and Iglika Ivanova, Canada’s tax system is in dire need of reform.

Fairness by Design: A Framework for Tax Reform in Canada finds that ad-hoc tax changes over the last two decades have seriously weakened the redistributive role of Canada’s tax system at a time when market inequalities call for more, not less, redistribution. The study also present a framework for a progressive tax reform strategy and recommends the establishment of a Fair Tax Commission to examine how federal taxes and transfers work together as a system and make recommendations for changes. 

Find out more in the full report, here.