On a trip back to Toronto this week I attended the launch of a new report commissioned by the Ontario Secondary School Teachers’ Federation, and written by Aimee McArthur-Gupta from the Conference Board of Canada. The report presents some estimates of the economic, fiscal and social benefits of public education
Continue readingTag: Deficit
Mind Bending Politics: PC Party Platform Still With Highest Deficits and Not Approved By The Party
The PC’s released a platform today outlining the costs associated on their campaign promises but failed to provide any information on how these promises would be paid for. Mike Moffatt who is a director at the independent think tank Canada 2020, and an associate professor at the Ivey Business School, has crunched
Continue readingMind Bending Politics: Ontario PC’s Running The Largest Deficit Projections in Current Platform
Mike Moffatt who is a director an the independent think tank Canada 2020, and an associate professor at the Ivey Business School, has come up with an interesting post comparing the platforms of each party in the Ontario election and how they compare to deficit projections. Moffatt’s deficit projections put
Continue readingAlberta Politics: Will deficit hysteria finally pave the way for a sensible Alberta sales tax? Ummm … don’t count on it
PHOTOS: Never mind the political stuff, this is the Heidelberg-Königstuhl State Observatory, where astronomer Max Wolf discovered the Minor Planet Climenhaga in 1917. Below, not in the order in which they appear: Alberta Finance Minister Joe Ceci, British Columbia Lieutenant-Governor Judith Guichon, B.C. New Democratic Party Leader John Horgan, and
Continue readingDefend Public Healthcare: Ontario is not sinking into deficit: Better public services can be won
The Financial Accountability Office (FAO) predictssignificant deficits over the next several years – despite also predicting significant economic growth. Using the government’s accounting method, the FAO is predicting budget deficits of $0.5 billion this year, increasing to $3.6 billion in 2021-22. If the FAO is right then we do have a
Continue readingCanadian Political Viewpoints: Going for a New Record, Perhaps?
Source: CBC News: Sask. Now Projects $1B Deficit for 2016-2017Source: CJME News: $1B Deficit Forecast for Saskatchewan by End of April I did say I would get to the growing deficit eventually. So, at a time when the Finance Minister Kevin Doherty is arguing with former NDP MLAs and candidates
Continue readingCanadian Political Viewpoints: Going for a New Record, Perhaps?
Source: CBC News: Sask. Now Projects $1B Deficit for 2016-2017Source: CJME News: $1B Deficit Forecast for Saskatchewan by End of April I did say I would get to the growing deficit eventually. So, at a time when the Finance Minister Kevin Doherty is arguing with former NDP MLAs and candidates
Continue readingDefend Public Healthcare: Health Care and the Budget: Not Much
Health care and hospital funding: Despite significant new revenue and lower than expected debt costs, health care spending is almost exactly identical to the amounts planned in last year’s Budget for 2015-2018. The total health budget for 2015/1…
Continue readingThe Disaffected Lib: Paul Martin Gives Tommy Angry Beard a Well-Deserved Kick in the Ass.
Paul Martin was the finance minister who plucked the federal government from the brink of fiscal chaos. It was a tough time for all including the provinces, even the Canadian Forces, but he balanced the budget and paid down $90 billion of our national debt. He kept the bankers in
Continue readingTrashy's World: The CPC, liars since 2006…
Yeah, forget about the Parliamentary Budget Office saying that we are already in deficit. Like, what do they know? The Harper Reform Party – lying comes so naturally to them. (0) Trashy, Ottawa, Ontario
Continue readingDefending Public Healthcare: Ontario’s answer to the deficit: 35 years of revenue cuts
In a recent long-term report on the economy, the Ontario government recognized that own-source Ontario government revenue as a percentage of gross domestic product (GDP) has declined over the last fifteen years. The decline is equal to 2 percentage points of the province’s GDP. That is more than $14 billion.
Continue readingDefending Public Healthcare: Rising inflation and a shrinking Ontario deficit?
Revenue prospects for this year: An earlier post looked at poor job creation in Ontario and the impact that might have on obtaining the revenue goals the government has set for this year. Last week’s jobs report for July was dreadful on a Canada-wide basis. But the report noted Ontario saw some pick up
Continue readingDefending Public Healthcare: Deficit? Public spending ain’t the cause. Revenue, however…
With the election over, pressure to cut public programs has become quite intense. In almost all of the corporate owned media someone is barking on about it. Another option — increasing revenue from the wealthy is not mentioned. However, data clearly indicates that Ontario does not have an overspending problem
Continue readingPushed to the Left and Loving It: Canada’s New Parliamentary Budget Officer Doesn’t Disappoint – Stephen Harper
After former Parliamentary budget officer Kevin Page locked horns with the Conservatives over their voodoo math, he was replaced by someone whose inexperience would be much easier to manipulate. Not that Jean-Denis Frechette isn’t a nice man, but as Michael Warren noted of his appointment, in the Star: … the
Continue readingThe Sir Robert Bond Papers: How do they run things? Budget Lead-Up #nlpoli
Finance minister Charlene Johnson will read the new provincial budget speech on Thursday. In keeping with the provincial Conservative tradition, though, they’ve been announcing bits and pieces of the budget already. On Monday, for example, justice minister Darin King announced that the new budget would contain money for 20 new
Continue readingWritings of J. Todd Ring: The rise of Bitcoin: and the challenge to the global domination of big money
The following article was written on October 25. I wanted to read it over once more before publishing it, then got busy with other things and forgot about it. In the roughly six weeks that have passed since the writing of this article, the Bitcoin prices have gone from roughly
Continue readingWritings of J. Todd Ring: US government shutdown, and other fairy tales and political theatre
I’m not sure what to make of the hoopla going on in the US right now. I’m inclined to think it’s all just political theatre, as Gerald Celente calls it, designed to distract the people from the real issues – the central one being, who controls the government and the
Continue readingProgressive Proselytizing: Obama tries to regain the narrative on the Sequester
When Obama decided to give back 5% of his salary to the Treasury, he made a political move not done since Herbert Hoover. In so doing, he undoubtedly aims to reclaim the momentum and the narrative on the Sequester that has been lost over the last month.Before the Sequester was implemented, public
Continue readingThe Canadian Progressive: Federal Budget 2013 Must Focus on Job Creation, Not Cutbacks, CAW Says
By: Canadian Auto Workers Union | Press Release TORONTO – The CAW is calling on federal Finance Minister Jim Flaherty to focus on job creation, not more spending cutbacks in his 2013 budget, to be unveiled tomorrow. “Canada’s public debt is small, relative to past history and to the debt problems faced in other
Continue readingThe Canadian Progressive: Ontario’s 2012 austerity measures causing an economic slowdown: Report
Press Release | Posted Mar 18, 2013 Ontario’s experiment with austerity in 2012 is contributing to an economic slowdown that demands a different course of action in 2013, says a new report by the Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives’ Ontario office (CCPA-Ontario). The report, by CCPA-Ontario Director Trish Hennessy and CAW economist Jim
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