Search results for “site/economics of childcare”

  • Stagnant economy may mean more cuts to come

    The federal government released its annual fall update on the country’s finances today. Despite the upbeat messaging around the “Update of Economic and Fiscal Projections” there are concerning underlying trends with the country and its finances. For regular Canadians, there is no explosive growth expected in the job market to make up…

  • 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…

  • New CCPA study calls for increase in the minimum wage

    CLICK HERE TO VIEW THE FULL REPORT As the last labour day of the millennium approaches, the Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives is calling for a substantial increase in the minimum wage. In a major new study released today, the Centre dispels numerous myths about minimum wages, and argues that…

  • 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…

  • CETA’s Harmful Constraints on Ontario

    Trade deal with Europe threatens many costly ill-effects The governments of Canada and the European Union (EU) are in the final stages of negotiating a sweeping agreement that would impose unprecedented constraints on federal, provincial, territorial, and municipal governments’ capacity to put public interests ahead of corporate interests. The agreement…

  • 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…

  • 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…

  • 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…

  • Paid in full

    Who pays for university education in BC? Who pays for BC’s universities? The usual answer is the taxpayer since tuition fees amount to only one third of university teaching costs. This answer, however, is incomplete since it ignores a second way that students pay, namely, through higher taxes after they…

  • 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…

  • 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…