Search results for “site/economics of childcare”

  • Fast Facts: It’s getting great

    Government investment in social housing Over the last few years, the Province of Manitoba has invested millions of dollars in renovating and providing resources in two public housing complexes in Winnipeg, Gilbert Park and Lord Selkirk Park. These investments have re-energized the two communities, and are making a positive difference…

  • 84 doctors, health experts & economists across Canada call on BC government to show national leadership with 10 days paid sick leave

    VANCOUVER—Eighty four signatories to an open letter published today say they want the BC government to show national leadership because its actions will set the bar for other provinces and territories at a time when the right to paid sick leave is more important than ever. The signatories include ER…

  • A surplus at all costs? Balanced budget fixation hurts BC

    Almost every year at budget time, BC governments of all stripes predict public coffers are going to be worse off than they’re likely truly expecting. This habit is usually portrayed as harmless or even prudent, but when the budget room available to us is systematically underestimated, it distorts the scope…

  • A Response to Saskatchewan’s Climate Change White Paper

    Download 1.46 MB20 pages The Saskatchewan government’s recent Climate Change White Paper presents an incomplete analysis of the impact of carbon pricing on Saskatchewan. That is the conclusion of Environmental Economist Dr. Brett Dolter in A Response to Saskatchewan’s Climate Change White Paper. A joint publication of the Saskatchewan Environmental Society…

  • In Dec 2019 Premier John Horgan, Minister Carole James and Minister Adrian Dix gathered to celebrate the end of MSP premiums in BC, effective Jan 1, 2020. Credit: Province of BC/Flickr

    Happy new year—no more MSP!

    It’s a brand new year, and BC’s Medical Services Plan (MSP) premiums are no more. That’s great news because MSP premiums were a very unfair tax (or “regressive” as we economists like to say). In its first budget (in 2018), the current provincial government announced it would phase out MSP…

  • BC’s shiny new climate plan: A look under the hood

    BC’s new climate plan, Clean BC, is a big and visionary document and was instantly lauded by environmental groups and businesses alike. In this post, I recap the key components of the plan and do a bit of a reality check against the hype, in particular the challenge of fitting…

  • BC throne speech repackages old announcements, lacks courage and vision

    Today’s Speech from the Throne reads more like a list of what this government sees as its main achievements than a true framework for going forward. New initiatives are few and far between, sandwiched between pages of self-congratulatory recap of the natural gas strategy, the jobs plan and highlights from…

  • Change in direction on tax policy needed to escape budget crunch, ensure high-income British Columbians and corporations pay fair share: study

    (Vancouver) The BC government likes to boast that our province has the lowest personal and corporate income taxes in Canada, but a new report says that’s nothing to be proud of. “A decade-plus of tax cuts has left us in a budget crunch and failed to deliver on promised economic…

  • Fast Facts: Ending Poverty, Our Collective Responsibility: 2019 Manitoba Throne Speech

    Yesterday, Manitoba released its Speech from the Throne – the provincial government’s plan for the next couple of months while they’re in the Legislature making decisions. Ending Poverty in Manitoba is a collective responsibility – one that deserves to be on the top of the priority list for any government…

  • Quality of Life Assessment is too important to be left to economists

    Download 229.48 KB 4 pages In 2008, French President Nicolas Sarkozy estab­lished the Commission on the Measurement of Eco­nomic Performance and Social Progress. It was headed by two Nobel laureates, Joseph Stiglitz and Amartya Sen, and coordinated by the French economist, Jean-Paul Fitoussi. The 22 members of the Commission included…

  • April 2008: First Nations Fight to Protect Their Land

    Algonquins and settler allies block proposed uranium mining A mining exploration company’s government-supported attempt to drill for uranium on First Nations land is finally beginning to create outrage far beyond the quiet corner of Eastern Ontario where it began over a year ago. On February 15, a Kingston judge’s draconian…

  • The Tobin Tax

    The case for a tax on international monetary transactions This article is based on a speech delivered in 1995 at a CCPA conference in Ottawa by U.S. economist James Tobin, who died in 2002 at the age of 84. A prominent supporter of Keynesian economics and winner of the Nobel…