Earlier this week, Andrew Jackson, senior policy advisor to the Broadbent Institute, wrote a thoughtful and constructively critical analysis of the Ecofiscal Commission’s first report.  My first response is: thank you, Andrew.  Jackson’s piece epitomizes the much-needed evolution of the debate around climate policy in Canada.  It moves us squarely to the discussion we should be having:  not if we need better policies, but how they should be designed.

OTTAWA—The Broadbent Institute is offering news media embargoed copies of an animated video and accompanying landmark survey that asked Canadians for the first time what they think the wealth gap is and what the ideal should be. This allowed for a comparison with the actual wealth distribution in Canada.

Understanding what has been happening in recent years with income inequality in Canada is vitally important.

What do we know, for example, about the incidence of low income and poverty, or the impact of taxes and income transfers on the level and distribution of family income? What are the differences in income across provinces, or between different kinds of families, such as seniors and lone-parent families? More pressingly from a public policy perspective, what difference has government policy made to the economic well-being of Canadian families and to the fairness and equity of Canadian society?

Answering these questions relies on having sound data that are reliable and comparable over time.