Corporate tax cuts have been central to the Harper government's economic agenda. The result has been a huge loss of public revenues for negligible economic gain, suggesting that we need a major policy rethink.

Today, Bill C-377 passed Third Reading in the Senate after the Conservative government shut down debate. If there was any doubt this anti-labour “Private Member’s Bill” didn't have the full backing of the Harper government that has been put the rest.

OTTAWA--Even before the Conservative government increased the contribution limit for Tax-Free Savings Accounts, the proportion of people maxing out their TFSAs had dropped dramatically from 64 per cent to under 18 per cent. Moreover, participation and maximization patterns by age and income suggest that asset shifting and income splitting are the primary sources of contributions rather than new saving, a new Broadbent Institute study has found.

While Canada's short term economic prospects are pretty gloomy, longer term projections are even worse. A major reason is that policy-makers here and in all of the advanced industrial countries have been content to settle for a very slow recovery which undermines our longer-term economic potential.