Northern Insight: BC Liberals’ startling success
Many commentators claim BC Liberals are incompetent and ineffective. While true in ministries such as Justice and Children and Family Development, Liberals have been successful in the centerpiece of...
View ArticleNorthern Insight: "Improved" PST will look much like HST
With less than 20 weeks before the BC election, our Liberal government continues spending tax dollars to promote themselves. It’s not the first time they aimed to influence the vote with...
View ArticleThe Progressive Economics Forum: What’s next for BC’s carbon tax?
An oped of mine was published by the Vancouver Sun today: What’s next for BC’s carbon tax? Marc Lee Climate change forced its way onto the political agenda in 2012, as Hurricane Sandy ripped through...
View ArticleThe Progressive Economics Forum: GHG Cap & Trade
This is a guest blog post written by Whitehorse-based economist, Luigi Zanasi. Please feel free to comment. Also, please note that this was written before Marc’s blog post of Jan. 14 re: BC’s carbon...
View ArticleThe Progressive Economics Forum: Canada’s bloated 1 per cent
Statistics Canada’s release on the escalating incomes of the top 1 per cent gained a lot of media coverage — and also provoked some very defensive reactions by major organs of the Canadian media. This...
View ArticleThe Progressive Economics Forum: Tax and the Top 1%
Further to Toby’s comments, Miles Corak has posted an excellent commentary on the new numbers on high incomes, together with a spread sheet showing average effective tax rates by income group from the...
View ArticleThe Progressive Economics Forum: Fairness by design: a framework for tax...
A new CCPA (National) report by Marc Lee and myself argues that Canada’s tax system needs a “fairness” overhaul and presents a framework for progressive tax reform. Those of you who have been following...
View ArticleThe Canadian Progressive: Canada Loses Billions in Revenue to Tax Havens
By Canadians for Tax Fairness | Feb. 18, 2013: The growing use of tax havens is costing Canadians an estimated $7.8 billion annually, the executive director of Canadians for Tax Fairness has told a...
View ArticleAlberta Diary: Minuscule Canadian Taxpayers Federation in running for ‘Turfy...
Former Canadian Taxpayers Federation Alberta Director Scott Hennig, now the group’s Communications VP, in a nice AstroTurf-coloured sweater at last weekend’s Ottawa conference of the Manning Centre for...
View ArticleNorthern Insight: Tax issue the Harper Gov’t prefers not to address
Read Committee studying offshore tax evasion will not question revenue minister at The Globe and Mail. This story comes from the USA but Canadian companies employ similar schemes of tax avoidance. In...
View ArticleThe Progressive Economics Forum: Are average Canadians paying too much in taxes?
On April 23, the Fraser Institute released the annual update of their misleading Consumer Tax Index report. The piece is meant to feed the anti-tax sentiment with numbers sprinkled liberally for their...
View ArticleThe Progressive Economics Forum: How Offshore Tax Havens Destroy Governments
Last fall, Greek magazine editor Kostas Vaxevanis published in his magazine Hot Doc a list of 2,000 wealthy Greeks who were hiding taxable savings in the Geneva branch of HSBC. The list had been...
View ArticleThe Progressive Economics Forum: Funding Cuts to Alberta’s PSE Sector: There...
It has recently been reported that the University of Alberta wants to “reopen two-year collective agreements” with faculty and staff “to help the university balance its budget…” This appears to be in...
View ArticleThe Progressive Economics Forum: Why Is Tom Mulcair Opposed to Tax Increases?
A recent online article suggests that Federal NDP Leader Thomas Mulcair is opposed to increasing federal tax rates. I find this quite surprising. According to the August 8 article: Mulcair seemed...
View Articlecalgaryliberal.com: University of Calgary Liberals mentioned in Wikileaks
Turns out the Young Liberals at the University of Calgary is seen as an organization of real influence by the US State Department. Below is a quote from Wikileaks that talks about how the UofC Liberals...
View ArticleNorthern Insight: That was then; this is now
Much of my youth was spent in the coastal mill town of Powell River. Paying excellent wages, the pulp, paper and lumber company directly employed almost 2,500 workers. It hired the town’s young people...
View ArticleNorthern Insight: They assume we’re feckless idiots and they might be right.
Before the May 2013 election, BC Liberals promised the entire provincial debt, budgeted this year at $62.5 billion, could be eliminated within 15 years with government proceeds of natural gas...
View ArticleNorthern Insight: "Revenue neutral" carbon taxes – hollow claim
In its June budget update, the BC Government said, “When the carbon tax was introduced, one of the key principles was that the tax would be revenue neutral – that all carbon tax revenue would be...
View ArticleNorthern Insight: Of business, by business, for business
British Columbia’s revenue from natural resources totalled $4 billion in fiscal year 2001. The Bank of Canada inflation calculator shows the equivalent in current dollars is $5 billion. Natural...
View ArticleNorthern Insight: Talking with Ian Jessop, CFAX 1070 Friday 1pm
I’ll be with Ian Jessop on CFAX 1070 today, discussing natural resource revenues accruing to the British Columbia government. In the last seven years, provincial revenues from ferry fares and medical...
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