Federal R&D Panel Report
In a week when business lobby groups are appearing before the House of Commons Committee on Finance and calling for more tax breaks, the federal R&D Panel appointed a year ago released a very good...
View ArticleOECD on Inequality
Following concern expressed by the IMF, the Conference Board and of course thousands of protesters around the world, the OECD has just released an extensive 400 page report on the problem of growing...
View ArticleBattle of the Wages study dispels myths about public sector wages
A comprehensive study released today by CUPE shows there’s no evidence public sector workers are paid consistently more than those in similar jobs in the private sector. Instead, overall average pay in...
View ArticleEconomic Climate and Inequality
The December issue of the quarterly Economic Climate for Bargaining publication I produce is now on-line. Â This issue has a number of pieces on issues of inequality, including: Rising inequality is...
View ArticleFlaherty’s Christmas List – all Mixed Up
Following recent dismal reports on rising unemployment, stagnant GDP growth, and a deteriorating economic outlook, we can only hope federal Finance minister Jim Flaherty will provide some Christmas...
View ArticleCost of Inequitable Tax Loopholes Increases
Finance Canada published its annual Tax Expenditure Report for 2011 and it shows that the cost of some of the most inequitable tax preferences and loopholes continues to rise. For instance the stock...
View ArticleRising Inequality Spooking the 0.0001%
Contributors to this blog–and CCPA experts–have been warning about the negative economic and social consequences of rising inequality for decades.  Now the even the 0.0001% are getting concerned. Â...
View ArticleTax Shifting
Earlier this week, the Globe and Mail’s Economy Lab published a piece by Stephen Gordon arguing that high income and corporate taxes won’t generate much revenue.  Gordon used used the metaphor of...
View ArticleRecalculating inflation: billions in savings for governments and employers...
The top story in the Globe and Mail today reports on something I warned about a year ago: Statistics Canada is making changes to the way it calculates the Consumer Price Index. At that time, I...
View ArticleCould McGuinty’s cuts be worse than Harris?
The Ontario government’s long awaited and much discussed report of the Commission on the Reform of Ontario’s Public Services (aka, the Drummond report) was finally publicly released this afternoon. As...
View ArticleWhy taxing food staples should not be considered a policy option in Canada
Here’s an excellent piece by Sam Boshra, about the recent proposal by Michael Smart and Jack Mintz to apply the GST to food, from Sam’s blog at Economic Justice: Low-income households canâ€t buy food...
View ArticleConservatives’ small-minded budget kills jobs and fails Canadians
Here’s the budget analysis I prepared for CUPE’s website. Despite its size and the hundreds of measures it details, Harperâ€s 2012 budget demonstrates just how small-minded their vision is. Canada...
View ArticleStrong public support for financial transaction taxes
An international poll commissioned by the International Trade Union Confederation found very strong support in many countries, including Canada, for the introduction of Financial Transactions Taxes...
View ArticleCanadian banks use of tax havens keeps growing
A growing share of Canada’s investment overseas is being channeled by Canadian banks into tax havens. The latest Statistics Canada figures show 24% of Canadian direct investment overseas in 2011 went...
View ArticleDead Money
Kudos to Bank of Canada Governor Mark Carney for raising the profile of the over $500 billion Canadian corporations are holding in excess cash surpluses and not investing in the economy, which garnered...
View ArticleThree Cheers for the Fraser Institute!
At times, the Fraser Institute produces such helpful material. I hope they make their well-heeled funders, such as the multi billionaire Koch brothers, proud. However, I’m sure the Kochs are more...
View ArticleOntario hiding savings from lower interest rates
The Ontario government Fall Economic Statement and Fiscal Review ignores and hides billions savings the province will gain from lower borrowing rates in coming years. While this statement acknowledges...
View ArticleThe Austerity Trap
Below is a recent editorial from the New York Times that does an excellent job of summarizing the failures of austerity policies. The NYTimes also published a very good analysis of how austerity...
View ArticleExchange Rates, the Price of Oil and the Enbridge Northern Gateway Project...
This is a guest post by Paul Tulloch, of LivingWork.ca and frequent commentator on this blog, reporting on some  significant and timely work he prepared for the northern gateway pipeline review...
View ArticleNew historical lows in EI coverage
This  is a guest post by Paul Tulloch on the deterioration of Employment Insurance coverage, also responding Statscan’s release of EI figures for October 2012. The painful toll that job loss and...
View ArticleCanada’s bloated 1 per cent
Statistics Canadaâ€s release on the escalating incomes of the top 1 per cent gained a lot of media coverage — and also provoked some very defensive reactions by major organs of the Canadian media. This...
View ArticleThe CFIB’s Municipal Manipulations
After analyzing “research reports†issued by the Fraser Institute or the Canadian Federation of Independent Business (CFIB), I usually end up shaking my head in disbelief. Do they really need to so...
View ArticleA Dozen Reasons why Bill C-377 is the Worst
There has appropriately been a lot a criticism about Bill C-377 at House of Commons committees and the Senate. Â Hugh Segal has been particularly eloquent as have the many submissions. Graham Cox has a...
View ArticleBlissful Ignorance: another Conference Board report on P3s
The Conference Board of Canada has produced another report on P3s, funded by the federal and provincial P3 agencies and the Canadian Council for Public Private Partnerships (CCPPP). Unfortunately and...
View ArticleNHS fails low incomes–and Canadians
Unfortunately the following note to readers from today’s release of the third and final set of data from the National Household Survey by Statistics Canada speaks for itself: Note to readers...
View ArticleWho really bears the risk for P3s?
Canada is now the second biggest market for public private partnerships (P3s) in the world, as a recent Conference Board report showed (on page 30, see my initial critique here). P3s are big business:...
View ArticleWhat’s the real risk and cost for Regina’s wastewater P3?
The City of Regina is engaged in a controversial debate about a proposed public private partnership (P3) for the cityâ€s wastewater plant. Residents formed a Regina Water Watch group to keep the...
View ArticleThe benefits of sick leave — and of absenteeism
Most of us know the old adage, “An ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure.” Â Â That’s why we’re told by teachers to keep our kids home from school when they’re sick, so they get better and they...
View ArticleWhat happened to the recovery?
(The following is slightly adapted from a short piece on page 3 in the new issue of Economy at Work, the quarterly publication I produce for CUPE, which also covers a lot of other relevant...
View ArticleCanada’s (not so incredible) shrinking federal government
Buried in the federal government’s recent Update of Economic and Fiscal Projections are figures showing the Harper government is set to squeeze federal government’s role to the smallest it has been...
View ArticleTim Hudak: Scott Walker wannabe
Tim Hudak is sounding — and looking — even more like Scott Walker these days. The Ontario Conservative leader’s pledge to create one million new jobs sounds like a direct rip-off of Wisconsin governor...
View ArticleThe relentlessly hypocritical Gwyn Morgan
Another column by Gwyn Morgan in the Globe and Mail and another case of a 0.1 percenter telling the rest of us to “Do as I say, not as I do.” This time, it’s Gwyn recycling trash from the CFIB and...
View ArticleMissing In Action: Federal Budget 2014
Here’s the first section of the budget summary and analysis I’ve prepared for CUPE. The full version is on-line on CUPE’s website at http://cupe.ca/economics/missing-action-federal-budget-2014 together...
View ArticleTim Hudak, job-killer
It’s a bit of a headscratcher. First, Ontario Conservative leader Tim Hudak builds his whole campaign around a promise to create one million new jobs in Ontario over eight years, then one of his first...
View ArticleHudak job cuts impact on communities
Today the Ontario Federation of Labour and CUPE Ontario published calculations I prepared of how Ontario Conservative leader Tim Hudak’s promise to eliminate 100,000 public sector jobs will be felt...
View ArticleIs Harper right? Did corporate tax cuts really pay for themselves?
In a little noticed comment, Prime Minister Stephen Harper recently was reported to say: “Dropping our tax rate has not caused the government’s corporate income tax revenues to fall, which indicates...
View ArticleWhy the economy sucks (in one chart)
(The following is something I’ve prepared for the next issue of CUPE’s Economy at Work, a popular economics quarterly publication I produce.) In his annual Economic and Fiscal Update (EFU), finance...
View ArticleThe Ontario Auditor’s damning report on P3s
The Ontario Auditor General’s 2014 Report includes a chapter on Infrastructure Ontario’s P3 program that is particularly damning–and corresponds with many of the criticisms made on this blog and...
View ArticleWhy are women leaving Canada’s workforce?
I started producing an e-weekly earlier this year, Eye on the Economy: making sense of recent economic events, as a more regularly complement to the quarterly Economy at Work I also produce. Each issue...
View ArticleDeficit Déjà Voodoo again in New Brunswick
The Fredericton Daily Gleaner published an op-ed I wrote about how the province doesn’t have a structural deficit, despite the government claiming it does. The commentary piece is behind a pay wall so...
View ArticleBudget 2015: Robin Hood in Reverse
Here’s a link to the longer analysis I prepared of the federal budget, now on-line at CUPE’s website, to accompany the press release and notes we put out immediately following the budget. The entire...
View ArticleFiscal and Economic Record of Political Parties
A version of this originally appeared in rabble. Conservative ads have focused on the NDPâ€s fiscal and economic record, claiming that the “NDP Canâ€t Manage Moneyâ€. These include another round of...
View ArticleBanking on Privatization?
Finance Minister Bill Morneau tables his Fall Economic Statement on 1 November. We’ll likely find out then whether he has some has real treats, or if they’re planning more privatization tricks for...
View ArticleOntario’s Electricity Sector: Privatization and deregulation
We’re pleased to present this very topical post by Edgardo Sepulveda examining what has caused Ontario’s rising high electricity prices. This is Edgardo’s second guest post as a PEF member, following...
View ArticleCan Capitalists Afford a Trumped Recovery? Guest post by Jonathan Nitzan &...
This provocative guest post submitted by Jonathan Nitzan and Shimshon Bichler, was published earlier this year on their bnarchives website. Nitzan, professor of political economy at York University,...
View ArticleOntario’s Electricity Sector II: Political Economy Update
This is a third guest post by Edgardo Sepulveda, who is a Toronto-based expert in telecommunications and regulatory economics. Twitter: @E_R_Sepulveda By Edgardo Sepulveda In my previous post of...
View ArticleFord Plan for Ontario – Potential Employment Impacts
Ontario Conservative leader Doug Ford finally released a partially costed version of his election promises in his Plan for Ontario in the last week before the election. This includes approximately $7.6...
View ArticleCLC Senior Economist Job Opening
There’s an exceptional opportunity for a bright and critical-minded economist who is as passionate about social justice and working on behalf of unions and working people as they are about working with...
View ArticleMaking the COVID19 Wage Subsidy Program work better for workers
With the federal government is increasing its temporary wage subsidy to 75%, other reforms are needed to ensure the public funding goes to maintain workers, and not pad the profits of businesses. In...
View ArticleMuch stronger conditions needed on federal wage subsidy program
The federal government has announced it is prepared to pay wages subsidies of up to 75% of employee wages for all private businesses and other employers, including non-profits, partnerships and...
View Article