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Search results for: “site/Pat Armstrong”

  • The Limits of Demography

    Here is a piece I wrote for today’s Globe Economy Lab re the Department of Finance report on the costs of an aging society. The key point is that the mainstream doom and gloom projections of the costs of falling labour force growth  ignore the positive impacts which can be expected as…

  • Tax Increment Financing and Social Enterprise

    Promoting Equitable Community Revitalization in Winnipeg Currently, Manitoba is one of only two provinces in Canada that utilizes Tax Increment Financing (TIF) as a means for financing community revitalization projects in municipalities, although it has a long history of use in the United States. In a TIF financing scheme, the…

  • Capitalism is the Crisis (Part II)

    Corruption, corporate power, inequality must all be curbed India’s poor rural majority has benefited little from the country’s economic boom, and in fact has seen its position worsen. The same pro-free-market economic reforms that have made India attractive to Western capital and benefited the urban-based middle and upper classes have…

  • Presentation to the Standing Committee on Justice and Social Policy On Bill 8

    Commitment to the Future of Medicare Act Thank you for this opportunity to speak to Bill 8 – a Bill that seeks to protect Ontarians’ right to universal public health care. I am an economist based in Toronto, and a research associate with the Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives based…

  • Labour Matters

    Work Life: Temporary foreign workers face unjust crackdown

    As part of an ongoing overhaul of the Temporary Foreign Worker Program (TFWP) the federal government imposed what is referred to as the “four and four” rule, the results of which will begin to impact newcomers this April 1st. The regulation limits the length of time temporary workers may work…

  • Climate Justice Project

    Subsidizing dirty industries with expensive clean electricity is a recipe for major rate hikes

    Premier Clark’s recent decision to cap the BC Hydro rate increases next year may have ratepayers breathing a sigh of relief. But it’s a short term fix that will only delay addressing the major financial challenges now facing our Crown utility. Once the 2013 election is over, whoever forms BC’s…

  • Climate Justice Project

    Few jobs, massive emissions from oil and gas: look to green investments for stronger economy, says report

    CLICK HERE TO VIEW THE FULL REPORT OTTAWA—Accelerated oil and gas extraction will boost profits but won’t drive major employment gains, says a report released today by the Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives (CCPA). Instead, embracing a “green industrial revolution” will allow Canada to meet its climate change commitments while…

  • Managing Oil Wealth

    The Alberta/Canada Model vs. the Norwegian model The post-2000 petroleum-led resource boom is substantially reshaping the Canadian economy. It has driven up the dollar exchange rate from 62 cents to parity with the U.S. dollar, squeezing out other export sectors: traded services, tourism, forestry, and most notably manufacturing, where it…

  • American flag flying over cargo ship
    Trade and Investment Research Project

    From deep integration to reclaiming sovereignty

    Managing Canada-U.S. economic relations under NAFTA For some months now, business leaders and other free trade proponents have been beating the drums for another big leap of faith into a new comprehensive “trade” arrangement with the United States. Once again they are warning that the status quo is not acceptable,…

  • Alternative Federal Budget

    Think tank calls on feds to scrap spending cut plans

    Alternative Budget promotes a budget for the rest of us CLICK HERE TO VIEW THE FULL REPORT OTTAWA—The Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives (CCPA) urges the federal government to table a detailed budget that restores Canadians’ trust in the economy, public institutions, and democracy. With the release of its annual…

  • A Tale of Two Austerity Hardliners

    Conservative soul mates, Stephen Harper and British Prime Minister David Cameron, were in Davos, Switzerland a month ago lecturing Eurozone leaders on how to get their collective act together. As they have done since the G-20 meeting in Toronto, both were preaching fiscal austerity as the solution to Europe’s, and…

  • Slow and easy will win energy race

    It is hard not to detect a note of desperation in the provincial government’s recently unveiled natural gas strategy. In announcing it, BC Energy Minister Rich Coleman notes that we are “in a foot race” with Australia, Qatar and the United States to push as much of our natural gas…