Budget 2013: Canada needs productivity and sustainability
If there is one priority for the budget, it should be to look beyond the immediate fiscal issues and set a clear direction to a new economy based upon high productivity...
Proposing a green economic direction in the face of conservative confusion
In the lead-up to the 2013 budget it is worthwhile recalling the Conservatives’ economic record thus far. Faced with the 2008 economic bust, and a potential ouster from government, the Conservatives...
It’s time for Ottawa to walk the talk on skills training
Finance Minister Jim Flaherty thinks the provinces are wasting $2-billion in federal funding to support worker training, and says skills training will be “a priority of the budget.” While employers...
Introducing our first Broadbent Fellow: Brendan Haley
At the Broadbent Institute, we’re working hard to develop cutting-edge ideas for a more equal Canada. At the core of this project, we need a robust discussion about the kind...
Ahead of 2013 budget, Flaherty should be serious about investing in public infrastructure
Finance Minister Jim Flaherty is said to be considering extending funding for public infrastructure investment in his forthcoming budget, as urged by the Official Opposition, the provinces and municipalities. Let’s...
Federal Government Must Ensure Citizens Have Equal Access to Services
Canada is one of the most decentralized federations in the world. Public services (notably health, education at all levels, social services such as elder care, and local services) are delivered...
Getting the facts straight: EI changes hurt unemployed workers
In the last federal budget (Chapter 3.3), the federal government tried to sell its changes to Employment Insurance by describing how some hypothetical workers would benefit. Unfortunately, the scenarios they...
How more tax on the super-rich will help ease income inequality
Congratulations to Statistics Canada for providing an update on top incomes in Canada, and for launching two new CANSIM tables allowing researchers to dig into the details. While the income...
David McNally: Addressing Inequality by Rebuilding the Labour Movement
While growing social inequality is the product of a multi-pronged economic, political and cultural offensive by corporate power across the neoliberal era, the systematic weakening of trade unions looms especially...
Andrew Jackson: The Distribution of Wealth: Implications for the Neo Liberal Justification for Economic Inequality
Nobel Prize winning economist and political theorist Amartya Sen points out that “every normative theory of social arrangements that has at all stood the test of time seems to demand...