Last week, I wrote a short piece for Ricochet on the kind of simple but serious economic thinking missing from the Canadian election debate so far. Here, I want to expand on the reasons why we might have trouble talking honestly about the barriers to significant economic reform without a real popular upsurge. If
Continue readingTag: taxation
In-Sights: Avoidance / Evasion: often a fine line
The price isn’t right, Corporate profit-shifting has become big business, The Economist: DURING THE TAX-EVASION trial of Leona Helmsley, a flamboyant hotelier, a former housekeeper testified that she heard her employer say: “We don’t pay taxes. Only the little people pay taxes.” These days, multinational companies stand accused of taking
Continue readingIn-Sights: Serving public or corporate interests?
The audio file below is a recording of my time with Ian Jessop June 17. We talk about LNG and resource taxation, inter-provincial cooperation on resource matters and oil spill response capability. Your browser does not support this audio
Continue readingIn-Sights: Remembering the desperate nineties
Much of British Columbia’s recent political history has been written by a Liars Club sponsored by beneficiaries of corrupt public administrations. One fable claims that BC Liberals rescued the provincial economy in 2001 after a decade of socialist mismanagement. Yet facts assembled by Statistics Canada paint a different scenario. I’ve
Continue readingIn-Sights: Horgan speaks to the Premier
Hansard, May 28, 2015 The notion of a Debt-free British Columbia — hard to imagine when you’ve seen $135-billion increase in debt and contractual obligations under the B.C. Liberal watch. But somehow, in the fantasy world of the B.C. Liberals, you can make the assertion that we will be debt-free;
Continue readingNorthern Insight / Perceptivity: "Jobs, jobs, jobs" Or, maybe not
Your browser does not support this audioThe audio file above is a recording of my time with Ian Jessop May 12. We talk about jobs and natural resources but we don’t deliver BC Liberal talking points like many others in media. I urge readers to visit the CFAX podcast pages.
Continue readingNorthern Insight / Perceptivity: Myth busting
Andrew Nikiforuk wrote advice for Albertans in his recent article Eight Steps to Reform the Broken Petrostate: Behave like an owner: Alberta’s oil and gas resources belong to Albertans. The Tories’ “strip it and ship it” approach was not only wasteful, but also environmentally destructive. …Governments that run on taxes
Continue readingNorthern Insight / Perceptivity: Flawed analysis
Following the passing of Alberta’s Conservative party, Macleans writer Colby Cosh described a drawn-out illness that made the result inevitable. Followers of British Columbia politics will recognize symptoms also found west of the Alberta border: Elections Alberta, despite some political and legal controversies, did important work in investigating and documenting
Continue readingNorthern Insight / Perceptivity: Give them what they wanted, then give them even more
Your browser does not support this audioIn April, listeners to Ian Jessop’s CFAX1070 program heard about how government pays more to facilitate mining than it receives in direct payments for metals and minerals. In the latter part of the audio segment, we discuss government plans for secret agreements that will
Continue readingNorthern Insight / Perceptivity: Albertans will choose
[View the story “Natural resources, public assets, or corporate?” on Storify]
Continue readingcmkl: Armine, I need to hear more about this ‘fix don’t scrap TFSA’ business
I have huge amounts of respect for Armine Yalnizyan. In the People’s Republic of Chris she is Finance Minister. For life. However her latest item on rabble.ca wherein she (or her headline writer) calls for the Tax Free Savings Account program to be fixed (as opposed to scrapped) has got
Continue readingcmkl: Seniors organizations support doubling the TFSA limit? Can we have a source please?
Normally the Globe’s Parliament Hill coverage is pretty good. But this Bill Curry item makes the unattributed claim that seniors organizations support the trial-ballooned proposal to double the annual contribution limit to tax free savings accounts (TFSAs). Really? Which ones? The Society of Retired CEOs? Or maybe the Grey Circle
Continue readingNorthern Insight / Perceptivity: Takin’ care of business
For each $1 million of Nestle branded water sold, BC is paid about $2. Mind you, this is a better rate of return than the province gains from resource companies mining for metals and minerals. According to the 2015 Budget and Fiscal Plan, revenue from “metals, minerals and other” is
Continue readingThe Cracked Crystal Ball II: Canada’s Economy: Not Exactly Healthy
If you are a worker, you already know that Canada’s economy is a mess. The only people who don’t seem to know it are at the top. Press Progress published a very detailed analysis of how messed up our economy is today. A few of the highlight…
Continue readingThe Cracked Crystal Ball II: Canada’s Economy: Not Exactly Healthy
If you are a worker, you already know that Canada’s economy is a mess. The only people who don’t seem to know it are at the top. Press Progress published a very detailed analysis of how messed up our economy is today. A few of the highlights: First, the good
Continue readingThe Progressive Economics Forum: Doubling Contributions To The Tax Free Savings Account: Even Nastier Than Income Splitting
The Harper government gives five reasons why Canadians ought to be happy with its proposal to double the maximum contribution to the Tax-Free Savings Account. Examine each of its points more closely, however, and it’s clear that the TFSA carries far higher risks than rewards — for individual Canadians as
Continue readingNorthern Insight / Perceptivity: Sales tax not only way to pay for public services
CCPA Budget Submissions Natural Resource Royalties Reform, Iglika Ivanova, Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives, October 2014 BC used to collect well over $1 billion per year from natural gas royalties, but over the last five fiscal years these averaged a mere $330 million per year. The tax/royalty regime for LNG
Continue readingThe Progressive Economics Forum: Seccareccia on Greece, Austerity and the Eurozone
Over at the blog of the Institute for New Economic Thinking, Ottawa U professor Mario Seccareccia has given an interview titled “Greece Shows the Limits of Austerity in the Eurozone. What Now?” The interview can be read here.
Continue readingPolitics, Re-Spun: The So-Called Transit Referendum: Don’t Be Duped!
By Emily Griffiths The Transit referendum “Yes” campaign has been asserting itself all over Facebook, Twitter, neighbourhood news boxes, and I can’t help but ask myself, Since when is increasing a flat tax a leftist thing to do? Oh! The word “transit” has been attached to the newest proposed consumer
Continue readingcmkl: Families earning 30K-$60K to see least benefit from Tory income splitting plan
Well now I’m just shocked. The Globe has an item about some finance department documents Canadian Press unearthed via an Access to Information Act request Families earning $30K-$60K to benefit least from Tories’ family plan. Yes, the kleptocracy is here. And it’s now.
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