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Premier Brad Wall was Tweeting about today’s Statistics Canada report of an uptick in national manufacturing sales in March. It is an odd report for him to trumpet, given that it found a decline in Saskatchewan’s manufacturing sales that month. Another recent Statistics Canada report, Friday’s Labour Force Survey, indicates that Saskatchewan lost 400 manufacturing [...]
Posted by Erin Weir under labour market, manufacturing, Saskatchewan, StatCan.
May 16th, 2012
Comments: none
I have the following op-ed in today’s Saskatoon StarPhoenix: Royalty hike cure for Dutch disease Premier Brad Wall calls federal NDP Leader Tom Mulcair “very, very divisive” for expressing concern that Canada’s overvalued petro-dollar is eliminating manufacturing jobs. In reality, Wall is being divisive by exploiting this legitimate concern to fan the flames of western [...]
Posted by Erin Weir under exchange rates, manufacturing, media, NDP, oil and gas, Saskatchewan.
May 11th, 2012
Comments: 11
Murray Mandryk’s excellent column today saves me the trouble of writing a lengthy blog post on the Saskatchewan government’s recent musings about labour legislation. From an economic perspective, it’s worth noting that enabling unionized workers to opt out of paying union dues would create a classic free-rider problem. Indeed, Wikipedia’s article on this topic uses [...]
Posted by Erin Weir under media, Sask. Election 2011, Saskatchewan, unions.
May 4th, 2012
Comments: 5
The following is another excerpt from Dr. Ryan Meili’s new book, A Healthy Society: How a Focus on Health Can Revive Canadian Democracy, which fellow blogger Greg Fingas has been discussing. The road to Tevele is red sand and sloppy in the rainy season. The pick- up truck bounces in and out of ruts as [...]
Posted by Erin Weir under Africa, development, health care, inequality, poverty, Saskatchewan.
May 3rd, 2012
Comments: none
I’ve written before about attempts in Canada to create more separation between university teaching, on the one hand, and university research, on the other. In 2009, I wrote this opinion piece about an attempt by five university presidents to each acquire a larger share of university research dollars. And last year, I blogged here about [...]
Posted by Nick Falvo under education, fiscal federalism, inequality, Ontario, post-secondary education, privatization, R&D, rankings, Saskatchewan.
May 2nd, 2012
Comments: 4
The following is an excerpt from Dr. Ryan Meili’s new book, A Healthy Society: How a Focus on Health Can Revive Canadian Democracy. There’s a family that comes frequently to the West Side Clinic; we’ll call them Lucas and Annie. Hardly a week goes by that I don’t see them in for a medical visit [...]
Posted by Erin Weir under economic growth, health care, homeless, Saskatchewan, social democracy.
April 20th, 2012
Comments: 2
A hallmark of Brad Wall’s premiership has been cosy relations with municipal governments and the two westernmost provincial governments. Since taking office, the Sask. Party has been throwing money at municipalities. It pledged not to sign the Trade, Investment and Labour Mobility Agreement with Alberta and BC, but then did so through the New West [...]
Posted by Erin Weir under cities, media, Saskatchewan, taxation, TILMA.
April 7th, 2012
Comments: none
An interesting nugget in last week’s Drummond report is Table 11.1, an updated version of Table 2 from “Ontario’s Tax Plan for Jobs and Growth” (2009). It provides a sectoral breakdown of the McGuinty government’s recent business tax breaks: HST input tax credits, cutting the corporate income tax, and eliminating the corporate capital tax. The [...]
Posted by Erin Weir under banks, corporate income tax, Don Drummond, HST, manufacturing, Ontario, Saskatchewan.
February 19th, 2012
Comments: 1
Progressive economists have advocated expansionary fiscal and monetary policies to boost demand and create jobs, given the high rate of unemployment. By contrast, employers and conservative commentators complain of unfilled vacancies and labour shortages, emphasizing policies to increase labour supply and labour mobility. Today’s new Statistics Canada survey of job vacancies sheds fresh light on [...]
Posted by Erin Weir under Alberta, labour market, oil and gas, Saskatchewan, StatCan, unemployment.
January 24th, 2012
Comments: 9
Saskatchewan’s Brad Wall recently issued a statement exhorting his fellow Premiers to blaze largely unspecified new trails on healthcare, Employment Insurance and Equalization. Unfortunately, he misses the ball on all three issues. Greg Fingas and Verda Petry have already refuted Wall’s call for further healthcare privatization. On Employment Insurance, Wall implies that eastern Canadians are [...]
Posted by Erin Weir under Employment Insurance, equalization, fiscal federalism, health care, media, Saskatchewan.
January 21st, 2012
Comments: none
Saskatchewan’s newspapers reported today that BHP Billiton intends to sell the province’s potash outside of Canpotex, the marketing board that helps to maximize the price for which Saskatchewan potash is exported offshore. BHP executive Tim Cutt stated, “We will not market through Canpotex. We talked to the premier (Brad Wall) about that. He understands that.” [...]
Posted by Erin Weir under big business, potash, Saskatchewan.
January 13th, 2012
Comments: 1
I join other progressive bloggers in mourning the loss of Joe Kuchta. As CBC reported, his investigative approach to Saskatchewan and Saskatoon politics was widely respected. I drew upon his insights several times in debating the Trade, Investment and Labour Mobility Agreement.
Posted by Erin Weir under Blogroll, Saskatchewan, TILMA.
December 5th, 2011
Comments: none
Today’s Labour Force Survey indicates that the seemingly robust economic growth reported by Statistics Canada earlier this week is not translating into improved job prospects for Canadian workers. For the second consecutive month, employment is down and unemployment is up. (By contrast, the situation improved south of the border.) Manufacturing: Another Record Low Although overall [...]
Posted by Erin Weir under labour market, manufacturing, Sask. Election 2011, StatCan, unemployment.
December 2nd, 2011
Comments: 2
Advocates of low potash royalties are claiming that New Democrats fared poorly in Saskatchewan’s recent election because they proposed higher potash royalties. Of course, potash companies and their boosters would like the NDP to give up this cause. Doing so would be a political mistake for the party and a disservice to the people of Saskatchewan. Most [...]
Posted by Erin Weir under media, NDP, potash, Sask. Election 2011.
November 14th, 2011
Comments: 1
I got to know and like Dave McGrane in the Saskatchewan Young New Democrats, but the following assessment misses the mark: McGrane, an assistant professor at St. Thomas More College, said the NDP’s defeat was a product of failing to connect with rural Saskatchewan, poor political marketing and outdated policies. “People had no idea what [...]
Posted by Erin Weir under media, NDP, Sask. Election 2011.
November 11th, 2011
Comments: 5
To state the obvious, Saskatchewan’s provincial election result was not good for progressives. I was especially surprised by the NDP’s loss of constituencies like Regina Douglas Park (where I grew up), Moose Jaw Wakamow and Prince Albert Northcote. It could have been worse. Political commentators were musing about the NDP falling below 30% of the [...]
Posted by Erin Weir under NDP, Sask. Election 2011.
November 10th, 2011
Comments: 2
PotashCorp CEO Bill Doyle waded into Saskatchewan’s election campaign on Friday with an op-ed in the province’s two largest newspapers. It was accompanied by a paid advertisement from PotashCorp in Saskatoon’s StarPhoenix. The company got some free advertising in Regina’s Leader-Post through Bruce Johnstone’s column, which repeated Doyle’s op-ed. The Saskatchewan Party is parroting the [...]
Posted by Erin Weir under big business, corporate income tax, media, potash, Sask. Election 2011.
November 1st, 2011
Comments: 1
Yesterday’s strong earnings report from the Potash Corporation of Saskatchewan confirms what this blog and the NDP have been contending: even modestly increasing Saskatchewan’s extremely low royalties on hugely profitable potash mines could fund substantially better provincial public services. The Saskatchewan Party still refuses to review potash royalties. In a well-timed column, Greg Fingas developed [...]
Posted by Erin Weir under corporate income tax, media, NDP, potash, Sask. Election 2011.
October 28th, 2011
Comments: none
Regarding the NDP platform’s reliance on additional potash revenue, columnist Murray Mandryk asks, “What if potash tanks as it did in 2009?” Of course, budgets are necessarily based on assumptions about future commodity prices. Saskatchewan Finance estimates that each dollar of change in the price of oil alters provincial revenues by $20 million (page 35). [...]
Posted by Erin Weir under media, oil and gas, potash, Sask. Election 2011.
October 23rd, 2011
Comments: 2
Saskatchewan’s two major parties have unveiled their election platforms. The NDP’s fiscal plan is to collect higher potash royalties and reinvest the proceeds in public priorities like healthcare, education and housing. Columnist Murray Mandryk notes the spectre of Erin Weir. The NDP has expressed a willingness to discuss sharing resource revenues with First Nations. The [...]
Posted by Erin Weir under media, NDP, potash, Sask. Election 2011.
October 22nd, 2011
Comments: none
The banner headline, in block capitals, on the front page of yesterday’s Regina Leader-Post was “SASK. PARTY HAS FIVE-POINT HEALTH PLAN.” That’s accurate reporting, as far as it goes. The Saskatchewan Party did announce a healthcare plan featuring five points. It would have been similarly accurate to report that this announcement was accompanied by a [...]
Posted by Erin Weir under health care, media, Sask. Election 2011.
October 20th, 2011
Comments: none
The Saskatchewan NDP is proposing to collect higher potash royalties and save a portion of the proceeds in a new Bright Futures Fund. The NDP has also expressed its willingness to negotiate with First Nations about the possibility of resource revenue sharing. The right-wing Saskatchewan Party strangely claims that the NDP’s plan “would plunge the province [...]
Posted by Erin Weir under economic literacy, NDP, potash, Sask. Election 2011.
October 15th, 2011
Comments: none
Yesterday, the Saskatchewan Party claimed that the provincial NDP’s plan for 30 additional primary healthcare clinics would cost $840 million. It has since removed this goofy press release from its website, but here’s a screenshot. The Sask Party multiplied the Saskatoon Community Clinic’s $7-million annual provincial cost by 30, and then multiplied that total by [...]
Posted by Erin Weir under economic literacy, health care, NDP, Sask. Election 2011.
October 13th, 2011
Comments: 1
In Saskatchewan’s provincial election campaign, the incumbent Saskatchewan Party is promising a scholarship of up to $500 per year for new high-school graduates who undertake post-secondary studies. It claims that this scholarship is worth “THREE TIMES” the annual increase in university tuition fees, which has averaged $146.50 over the past four years. What the Sask [...]
Posted by Erin Weir under economic literacy, post-secondary education, Sask. Election 2011.
October 12th, 2011
Comments: 1
In response to a pretty moderate Ontario NDP platform, today’s lead Globe and Mail editorial goes off the rails on a crazy train: “disastrous,” “protectionism run amok,” “a fantasy,” “a radical platform that would move Ontario toward a command economy” and “dangerous provincialism.” It breathlessly reports that “Ms. Horwath did not rule out nationalization of [...]
Posted by Erin Weir under media, NDP, Ontario Election 2011, Saskatchewan.
October 4th, 2011
Comments: 1
The C. D. Howe Institute is out this morning with a press release entitled, “Raising Oil and Gas Royalties Does Not Benefit Provincial Coffers.” A complete analysis of the accompanying 30-page paper – featuring many graphs, tables and regressions – will take time. But here is my initial take. Background The Institute correctly notes that [...]
Posted by Erin Weir under Alberta, BC, budgets, C. D. Howe Institute, media, oil and gas, Saskatchewan.
September 14th, 2011
Comments: 1
There’s been no shortage of new content on our blog this week. But I write to highlight a couple of interesting reads from other blogs. On The Globe and Mail blog, Andrew Hepburn (formerly of Sprott Asset Management) has a very good op-ed about financial speculation in food commodities. On the CCPA’s Behind the Numbers [...]
Posted by Erin Weir under Blogroll, Conservative government, farming, financial markets, Saskatchewan.
August 11th, 2011
Comments: none
The Saskatchewan Party had repeatedly promised not to sign TILMA, but signed the New West Partnership Trade Agreement (NWPTA) last year. At the time, many commentators (including yours truly) noted that the NWPTA was little more than a renaming of TILMA. I see that the official TILMA website is now automatically redirecting to the NWPTA [...]
Posted by Erin Weir under democracy, Saskatchewan, TILMA.
July 18th, 2011
Comments: 1
The Canadian Union of Public Employees has launched a great new blog, Imagine What We Could Do, about the things Saskatchewan should accomplish by raising resource royalties. It draws upon this blog’s analysis of how the province could collect more resource revenue and outlines public expenditure priorities for those funds.
Posted by Erin Weir under Saskatchewan, unions.
June 12th, 2011
Comments: none
Andrew Scheer has been elected House of Commons Speaker. I met him in 2004, when we were federal candidates in adjacent Regina ridings. I was the no-shot NDP candidate against then-Finance Minister Ralph Goodale and he was the long-shot Conservative candidate against veteran NDP MP Lorne Nystrom. At the end of that summer, we were [...]
Posted by Erin Weir under democracy, media, Quebec, Saskatchewan.
June 4th, 2011
Comments: 4