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Michal Rozworski: “Investment” versus investment

Jun

23

2016

Surprise! A new investigation by the Toronto Star and the CBC found that recent treaties with tax havens like the Bahamas and Panama aimed at more “transparency” have just made it easier for corporations to evade ever more taxes. And Canadian corporations have obliged this golden opportunity. “Investment” abroad has ballooned all the while the ...

Writings of J. Todd Ring: The real costs of fossil fuel-powered vehicles – and the alternatives to them

Feb

24

2016

There is some rising concern, and at times vitriol, about electric car drivers not paying their fair share, because they buy no gas, and therefore do not pay gas taxes, which go to maintaining roads. While this is true, it is only a sliver of the bigger picture. The more salient fact is that ...

Joe Fantauzzi: The Political Economy of The Sharing Economy

Jan

16

2016

Introduction Today, getting a lift to the store is as easy as loading an application on a digital device and summoning a roving car to one’s door. It is fast, cheap and, many argue, less onerous than ownership. The so-called sharing economy is on the radar of interests representing business, various governments in Canada and, ...

Things Are Good: Taxing Sugary Water Works

Jan

12

2016

Beverages infused with copies amounts of sugar like Pepsi or Coke aren’t good for you health. When an entire nation consumes too much then public health suffers greatly. This has many governments looking into how they can stymie this overconsumption of unhealthy drinks. One solution is taxing soda sales. in 2014 the Mexican government started ...

Joe Fantauzzi: From Participatory Budgeting to Co-operative Tenant Control: An Alternative Policy Recommendation For Toronto Community Housing

Jan

6

2016

Toronto Community Housing (TCH) is a huge organization with a crucial mandate. Located in Canada’s most-populous city and the capital of the Province of Ontario, TCH provides housing for 164,000 low and moderate-income people in 58,500 homes. The agency, created by the City of Toronto in 2002[1], is the largest public housing provider in Canada ...

Joe Fantauzzi: Raise Corporate Taxes To Fund Ontario’s Infrastructure Deficit: An Alternative Policy Proposal

Dec

16

2015

The province of Ontario currently faces a significant public infrastructure deficit which is harming its economic productivity and its quality of life. The government’s own numbers estimate that deficit at “tens of billions of dollars.”[1] Some media reports have pegged the number at times in excess of $100 billion.[2] I propose a new policy paradigm ...

Joe Fantauzzi: Notes on the Political Economy of the Hydro One Privatization or: Why Isn’t The Ontario Business Sector Paying Its Fair Share For Infrastructure?

Oct

30

2015

Ontario’s provincial government faces a massive public infrastructure deficit. The province’s own numbers estimate the deficit at “tens of billions of dollars.” Among the high profile components of this deficit is transportation infrastructure. In response, the government says it has invested billions of dollars into transportation infrastructure since 2003. Ontario’s Liberal provincial government is in the midst of a ...

OpenMedia.ca: Geist: Netflix Taxes and Canadian Digital Issues in the Election Spotlight

Aug

6

2015

All party leaders should say NO to the Canadian Netflix tax! Here’s why this discussion should be one of the important digital issues on the spotlight in the election campaign. Article by Michael Geist read more

Joe Fantauzzi: Ontario’s Common Sense Revolution at 20: A Look Back

Jun

8

2015

Today marks 20 years since the Progressive Conservative Party foisted its so-called “Common Sense Revolution” on Ontario. Former PC Ontario leader Tim Hudak took to Twitter this morning to extol the virtues of this full-throated neoliberal experiment, declaring it “the most effective, courageous gov[ernment]” in his lifetime. Some remember those days differently. Here are a few ...

Joe Fantauzzi: Ontario’s Common Sense Revolution at 20: A Look Back

Jun

8

2015

Today marks 20 years since the Progressive Conservative Party foisted its so-called “Common Sense Revolution” on Ontario. Former PC Ontario leader Tim Hudak took to Twitter this morning to extol the virtues of this full-throated neoliberal experiment, declaring it “the most effective, courageous gov[ernment]” in his lifetime. Some remember those days differently. Here are a few ...

Political Eh-conomy: Transfers, taxes and who pays for austerity

Apr

2

2015

The question of who pays for austerity and how is an enormous one. Promoters of austerity often claim that cuts to universal services are fine if they’re offset by transfers to those who can’t pay for newly-marketized services. The same goes for expanding services – why give everyone childcare if you could just give those ...

Political Eh-conomy: Some thoughts starting from a Fraser Institute graph

Dec

11

2014

I’ve been meaning to post something on a chart from a Fraser Institute report for a while but slept on it. The chart comes from Fraser’s annual Consumer Tax Report and is supposed to show the different paths taken by how much households pay in taxes and how much they spend on basic goods like food ...

atypicalalbertan.ca: 9 ways Alberta should manage resources better

Nov

8

2014

Sometime toward the end of November, the Alberta government will release their 2nd quarter fiscal update. Finance Minister Robin Campbell will likely tell us that the second quarter was another good quarter but that the good news is coming to an end and the 1st quarter projection of a $3 Billion bonus will be revised. The reason of course ...

atypicalalbertan: 9 WAYS ALBERTA SHOULD MANAGE RESOURCES BETTER

Nov

8

2014

Sometime toward the end of November, the Alberta government will release their 2nd quarter fiscal update. Finance Minister Robin Campbell will likely tell us that the second quarter was another good quarter but that the good news is coming to an end and the 1st quarter projection of a $3 Billion bonus will be revised. The reason of course ...

Political Eh-conomy: Forget income splitting, tax the rich!

Nov

4

2014

For now, I’ll keep double-posting my pieces for Ricochet here. The latest is on income splitting and taxing the rich more generally. The idea is that even though taxing the rich won’t get generate huge revenue, there are lots of other good reasons to do it, like even just slightly shifting the balance of power in the workplace. ...

Political Eh-conomy: Is Canada the Sweden of anything?

Oct

14

2014

There was an odd article last week on the explainer site Vox that argued Sweden doesn’t achieve its relative equality with very progressive, “soak the rich” taxation. While Matt Bruenig and Mike Konczal have already provided excellent, US-centred rebuttals to this argument, I thought this would be a good occasion to take a look at ...

Joe Fantauzzi: Needed: A Real Deal For Cities

Aug

11

2014

Over at NinetyTwoPointEight, I have written a post about the need for substantive discussion during the ongoing Toronto municipal election about freeing up the city from the paternalism of its relationship with and dependance on the province of Ontario. Here is the link: Election 2014: A Lost Opportunity To Push For A Real Deal For Cities

Joe Fantauzzi: The Ontario Election, Austerity and The Social Commons

May

29

2014

In his Second Treatise of Government, John Locke argued that land, when Common, was fallow and unproductive. Mixing one’s labour with the land, such as growing grain or picking an apple, however, privatized the land and allowed access to the fruits of the labour.[1] Eventually these private, “productive” lands were enclosed, most often by fences. In a ...

Joe Fantauzzi: The Ontario Election, Austerity and The Social Commons

May

29

2014

In his Second Treatise of Government, John Locke argued that land, when Common, was fallow and unproductive. Mixing one’s labour with the land, such as growing grain or picking an apple, however, privatized the land and allowed access to the fruits of the labour.[1] Eventually these private, “productive” lands were enclosed, most often by fences. In a ...

Alex's Blog: Tax Is More Than A Four Letter Word

May

1

2014

http://castroller.com/podcasts/TheAgendaVideo/4043959 The Agenda – Steve Paikin interview before the Ontario Budget May 30, 2014

Alex's Blog: Tax Is More Than A Four Letter Word

May

1

2014

“Taxes are what we pay for a civilized society”, a quote from Justice Oliver Wendell Holmes on the IRS headquarter in Washington Ontario Budget 2014: watch my interview with Steve Paikin at The Agenda HERE

Art Threat: Should artists be able to pay taxes with artwork?

Apr

11

2014

As income tax filing deadlines approach across North America, many Mexican artists will be counting canvases instead of pay stubs. In Mexico, a country that has lost over $870 billion to tax evasion and money laundering, hundreds of artists aren’t required to pay a dime in tax. Instead, they pay the government with artwork. For ...

Political Eh-conomy: Where’s the tax in BC’s carbon tax?

Apr

1

2014

British Columbia’s carbon tax has been getting some high praise lately. A recent article in the Atlantic called it “the crown jewel of North American climate policy”. Such assessments need some tempering. BC’s carbon tax can tell us important things about the limits of fiscal policy today, which in turn questions the potential it has ...

Political Eh-conomy: Published elsewhere: Ontario is no California when it comes to debt

Mar

21

2014

The Toronto Star just published an article I wrote in response to claims made by the Fraser Institute and the Toronto Sun that Ontario has a runaway debt problem worse than California’s. The short version: I call BS. The slightly longer version: California has constraints, such as limits on the size of debt and difficulties ...

Things Are Good: IMF: Tax the Rich to Improve the Economy

Mar

3

2014

The International Monetary Fund has just completed a study that compiled data across time and space to conclude that taxation isn’t harmful for economies. Indeed, taxing the rich is actually very beneficial for any national economy because it stops inequality – which is an awful thing for both people and economic progress. Labelled as the ...