Jessica Barrett / Calgary Herald
When I first conceived of my year-long project on the working world for the Calgary Herald’s Michelle Lang Fellowship, I have to admit, most of my proposal was based on a hunch. Through straw polls, coffee banter with friends and colleagues, discussions with my own parents and, of course, my own experience in the job...
Don Curren / Wall Street Journal
Canadians in the millennial and boomer generations disagree about much, but hold one thing in common: they’re deeply anxious about the economic future of young Canadians.
That was the key finding of a survey of Canadians between 20 and 30–the “millennial”...
Joe Friesen / Globe & Mail
The perception of a growing generational divide seems to be taking hold among millennials and their baby boomer parents, as both groups now tend to believe that the economic future looks bleak for the younger generation, a new survey shows.
The survey, which was commissioned by the Broadbent Institute, found that millennials fear their working lives will be governed by precarious,...
For many months the Conservative government has blatantly taken away by fiat the right to strike of union members within federal jurisdiction. They are now threatening to shut down environmental charities that are talking about climate change. And they are ramming through Parliament changes to the elections act that will almost certainly mean that many thousands of Canadians will not be able to vote.
Taken together these actions restrict
...Three economists on how the manufacturing sector can bounce back
This article originally appeared in the Toronto Star.
Manufacturing absolutely has a future in Canada, and in particular southwestern Ontario. The key to understanding the future of the industry is in knowing where our competitive advantages lie.
Low labour costs will never be a comparative advantage for
...Julian Beltrame / Canadian Press
Canadian families have become wealthier over the past several years, with net worth rising despite the well-documented growth in household debt and a setback from the recession, a new Statistics Canada study shows.
In a report that takes a long view on the state of Canadian finances, the agency finds that the 2012 median net worth among family units — of two or more persons and unattached...
Don Curren / Wall Street Journal
If you divide Canadian families up into fifths in terms of net worth, the lowest quintile had net assets of about 1,300 Canadian dollars ($1,170) in 1999.
In 2012, it was actually below that; the overall worth of the lowest 20% of families declined 15.4% to C$1,100 by 2012, according to the “Survey...
This week has been a watershed moment in the battle against income inequality in Canada.
The curious twist is that it was comments made by Jim Flaherty – who, as Finance Minister, has actually exacerbated income inequality – that illuminate a fundamental shift in Canada’s political imagination.
Sometimes, the world works in mysterious ways.
A lot of ink has already been spilled about Mr. Flaherty’s unexpected decision to publicly repudiate family income splitting, the day after tabling a budget that set up the Conservative government to deliver on precisely this tax...
Joe Friesen / Globe & Mail
When Jim Flaherty introduces his budget next week, he may trumpet a long-promised policy that would allow parents with children at home to split their income to reduce the amount of tax they pay.
Income splitting is a tax policy that would allow a higher-earning person to assign some of his or her income to a spouse, effectively lowering what tax...
David Murphy / Nunatsiaq News
Leesee Papatsie doesn’t think of herself as a political citizen — not even an activist.
“I’m just a mom that doesn’t want kids hungry,” Papatsie said.
A year-and-a-half ago, Papatsie created the wildly popular Facebook group to demonstrate the high cost of food in the North, ...
