Part I: A recently approved private member’s bill is deeply flawed and opens the floodgates to aggressive surplus stripping schemes. It should be fixed. Read this articleUPDATE: Surplus stripping and the new, costly tax loophole for intergenerational transfers
Our proposal represents an incremental step in the direction of a basic income guarantee. Harmonizing the main income tax credits, making the base and tax-back rate suitably progressive, and ensuring they are all refundable would form the basis for a modest basic income. Read this articleCanada should harmonize tax credits to enhance fairness and efficiency
The rise of small-business incorporation is suppressing taxable incomes of rich Canadians. The growing gulf between top personal tax rates and the low rates paid by small CCPCs is driving the rise of incorporation. Read this articleAre the rich really getting poorer in Canada?
Globe and Mail columnist Andrew Coyne took to Twitter to elaborate, with multiple charts, on his recent column about the woes afflicting the Canadian Pension Plan Investment Board. Read this articleAndrew Coyne: The problem with the CPP Investment Board
The scale and speed of the COVID-19 recession and the fiscal policy response has been remarkable. This commentary shows what has happened since the beginning of the pandemic and discusses the implications for future fiscal policy choices in Canada. Read this articleFiscal policy in the COVID recession: An early assessment
The federal government is right to extend its fiscal programs supporting businesses and workers through the pandemic because of the good it’s doing for part-time and temporary workers. Read this articleCanada’s Pandemic Response and Flexible Employees
To finally make a national child-care program a reality, Ottawa would need to budget between $7 billion and $9 billion a year. Since child care is a provincial jurisdiction, it’s important to explicitly consider the scale of federal fiscal intervention that would be necessary to incentivize all provinces, including those with low fiscal capacity, to participate. Read this articleThe Fiscal Rationale for Meaningful Federal Intervention in Child Care
The government should temporarily reduce the GST rate to two per cent from five per cent to support the economy until the recovery is well underway. My research shows that sales tax cuts have been passed onto consumers in the past, and they do lead to a surge in consumer demand. Read this articleThe Case for a GST Cut as Fiscal Stimulus
On January 28, the BC Expert Panel on Basic Income issued its final report. Media coverage of the report naturally focussed mainly on what the panel did not recommend – a basic income program – but the report offers far more than that. Read this articleBasic Income or Welfare Reform? A summary of the BC Basic Income Panel Report
Rather than wringing our hands about if and when the federal government plans to balance the budget or about the lack of a fiscal anchor to discipline federal spending, we should take the opportunity to assess the costs of decades of austerity light and have the long overdue debate about the role of debt and taxes in meeting the crises ahead and building the Canada we want. Read this articleMore Federal Debt Can Help Build a Better Canada
