The Progressive Economics Forum

The Working Poor and the Working Income Tax Benefit

February 22, 2018 Andrew Jackson 2 comments

Here is a short research paper I wrote for the Broadbent Institute. https://d3n8a8pro7vhmx.cloudfront.net/broadbent/pages/7073/attachments/original/1519312305/Canada’s_Working_poor_and_the_Working_Tax_Benefit_-_Report.pdf?1519312305 And here is a short summary: The Liberal government have promised to make progressive changes to the Working Income Tax Benefit (WITB) in next week’s budget. Let’s hope that they deliver. The increased insecurity of work and low hourly wages for many workers mean that many Canadians […]

Homelessness in BC

February 19, 2018 Nick Falvo Leave a comment

In anticipation of tomorrow’s provincial budget in British Columbia (BC), I’ve written a blog post about the state of homelessness in that province. Points raised in the blog post include the following: -Public operating spending by BC’s provincial government has decreased over the past 20 years. -Even after controlling for inflation, average rent levels across the province increased by 24% […]

Panel discussion at federal NDP policy convention

February 18, 2018 Nick Falvo Leave a comment

Yesterday I spoke on a panel discussion on economic inequality, along with Andrew Jackson and Armine Yalnizyan. We were guests at the federal NDP’s policy convention in Ottawa. The panel was moderated by Guy Caron. Topics covered included the minimum wage, basic income, affordable housing, the future of jobs, gender budgeting, poverty among seniors, Canadian fiscal policy in historical perspective, […]

Toward a Better World

February 9, 2018 Mel Watkins One comment

That is the well chosen title of a marvelous new book by Gerry Helleiner, sub-titled Memoirs of a Life in International and Development Economics. Helleiner, from his home base at the University of Toronto, tells us in this most readable book, in his own modest way, the stories, notably from Africa, of how he devoted his life as an economist to […]

The Clarkson Story up until Now and the Uncertain Future of The WTO

January 10, 2018 Marjorie Griffin Cohen Leave a comment

Stephen Clarkson The following is a contribution in the blog series on the exceptional contribution of Stephen Clarkson to Canada. Stephen Clarkson died in 2016. The substantial work he undertook on Canada and international trade is particularly relevant today as negotiations on NAFTA and other trade agreements occur. Stephen Clarkson receiving the Order of Canada Daniel Drache Daniel […]

Smooth Sailing Ahead For the Global and Canadian Economy?

December 20, 2017 Andrew Jackson One comment

The consensus forecast of just about everybody – the IMF, the OECD, the Bank of Canada, the Canadian banks – is that Canada will share in a global recovery from the stagnation which followed the financial crisis of a decade ago. All of the major economies – the US, the EU, China, Japan – are growing; business investment is finally […]

Extreme Wealth Inequality Persists

December 10, 2017 Andrew Jackson 2 comments

There was little or no media coverage of the release of data on the distribution of the wealth of Canadians in 2016 last week, perhaps because there has been little or no change since the last Survey of Financial Security in 2012. The top 20% of Canadians own 67.3% of all net worth (assets of all kinds minus liabilities), almost […]

Canada’s newly-unveiled National Housing Strategy

December 1, 2017 Nick Falvo Leave a comment

Over at the website of the Calgary Homeless Foundation, I’ve written a blog post about the Trudeau government’s recently-unveiled National Housing Strategy. Points raised in the post include the following: -One of the Strategy’s stated objectives is to reduce chronic homelessness in Canada by 50% over 10 years. -The Trudeau government claims that this is Canada’s “first ever” national housing […]

Ten considerations for the next Alberta budget

November 29, 2017 Nick Falvo Leave a comment

On November 17, the working group of the Alberta Alternative Budget (AAB) sponsored a one-day workshop at the University of Alberta. The event’s main purpose was to discuss recent developments in Alberta public policy, as well as expectations for the upcoming Alberta budget. Twenty speakers presented in total. In light of what was discussed at the event, here are 10 […]

Gimme shelter: is Core Housing Need a useful measure?

November 27, 2017 Marc Lee Leave a comment

For a new CCPA blog post on housing (un)affordability, I dove into the latest Census data for Metro Vancouver. I used two series on shelter cost and shelter-to-income ratio, and found that 32% of households were paying more than 30% of income on shelter (all households, owners and renters) and 16% of households more than 50% of income on shelter. […]

When Will the Fiesta Start? Mexico-Canada Relations in a New North America

November 25, 2017 Marjorie Griffin Cohen Leave a comment

Stephen Clarkson The following is a contribution in the blog series on the exceptional contribution of Stephen Clarkson to Canada. Stephen Clarkson died in 2016. The substantial work he undertook on Canada’s relationship to Mexico is particularly relevant today as NAFTA negotiations occur. Laura Macdonald is a Professor in the Department of Political Science and the Institute of Political Economy […]

Louis Pauly on Clarkson’s Great Transformation

November 20, 2017 Marjorie Griffin Cohen Leave a comment

The following is a contribution in the blog series on the exceptional contribution of Stephen Clarkson to Canada. Stephen Clarkson died in 2016. This piece is by Louis W. Pauly who is the J. Stefan Dupré Distinguished Professor of Political Economy at the University of Toronto. He is cross-appointed to the faculty of the Munk School of Global Affairs. His publications include […]

Andrew Cooper on Stephen Clarkson’s Foreign Policy

November 20, 2017 Marjorie Griffin Cohen Leave a comment

The following is a contribution in the blog series on the exceptional contribution of Stephen Clarkson to Canada. Stephen Clarkson died in 2016. This piece is by Andrew F. Cooper, who is a Professor at the Balsille School of International Affairs and the Department of Political Science at the University of Waterloo. He is also the Director of the Centre […]

Ontario’s Electricity Sector IV: Pre-Election Update

November 19, 2017 Edgardo Sepulveda Leave a comment

My first, second and third posts on the Ontario electricity sector described how policy and administrative decisions by different Liberal Governments gave rise to excess electricity generation with an inflated cost structure, leading to higher electricity prices. In anticipation of June 2018 elections, the Liberal Government recently implemented a costly and first-in-Canada financial scheme to fund its “Fair Hydro Plan” […]

Why Toronto needs a national housing strategy

November 11, 2017 Nick Falvo One comment

Dr. Colin Phillips is an up-and-coming scholar in Canada’s homelessness sector. He has an opinion piece in today’s Toronto Star titled “Why Toronto needs a national housing strategy.” Points made in the opinion piece include the following: -The City of Toronto has worked hard to develop good practices on the ground to address homelessness. -But, like all of Canada’s major […]

The Private Corporation Tax Loophole and the Ultra Rich

October 25, 2017 Andrew Jackson One comment

The 2017 Economic and Fiscal Update provides some detailed data (see pp. 51-53) on who will be impacted by the government’s plan to limit how much passive investment income can be earned in a private corporation. Income from investments held in a private corporation is taxed at a lower rate than investments held by a person in a non registered […]

Update on Jimbo’s Minimum Wage Wager

October 14, 2017 Jim Stanford 5 comments

It’s been over a week now since I challenged the authors of 5 business-friendly economic reports to a friendly wager over the future trajectory of employment in provinces that are raising their minimum wage to $15 per hour. The challenge was issued in my Globe and Mail column of October 3. I was responding to the several business groups and […]

New book on Indigenous homelessness

October 7, 2017 Nick Falvo Leave a comment

I’ve recently reviewed a new book on homelessness among Indigenous peoples. The book, published by the University of Manitoba Press, was edited by Evelyn Peters and Julia Christensen. My review can be accessed at this link.

Stephen Clarkson: An Introduction to a special blog series

October 6, 2017 Marjorie Griffin Cohen Leave a comment

Stephen Clarkson: Political Economist with a Global Vision (1937 – 2016) Marjorie Griffin Cohen and Daniel Drache Stephen Clarkson died early in 2016 in Freiburg, Germany and Canada lost someone very special. Stephen was a Professor in Political Science at the University of Toronto and engaged in teaching, research and writing until his death. He has contributed, in an extraordinary […]

Income and geographic distribution of low-income renters in Toronto

September 20, 2017 Edgardo Sepulveda Leave a comment

In this second of a series of housing-related posts I analyze the income and geographic distribution of renter-occupied households in the City of Toronto. My first post focussed on affordability and inequality trends by analyzing time series (2001-16) data for Ontario by household income quintiles. As a complement, this blog studies the income and geographic distribution of low-income and other […]

Some comments on the Financial Accountability Office of Ontario’s minimum wage commentary

September 13, 2017 Jordan Brennan 4 comments

The Financial Accountability Office of Ontario (FAO)—an independent, arm’s length, non-partisan research institute—released a paper on September 12th outlining the likely economic impacts flowing from the pending minimum wage increase (see here). The FAO’s findings are already garnering significant media attention and will almost certainly be used by the opponents of Bill 148 as further proof that the Ontario Government […]

The headline you didn’t see: $15 per hour will have a big net benefit

September 12, 2017 Michal Rozworski 2 comments

You wouldn’t know it from today’s headlines about impending job losses, but an analysis of the impact of Ontario’s move to a $15 minimum wage from the province’s Financial Accountability Office shows a net benefit for Ontario workers. Overall, this is a much more cautious report than what the Ontario Chamber of Commerce and its allies had furnished, noting both the costs […]

Book review: Social policy in Canada (2nd edition)

September 11, 2017 Nick Falvo One comment

Oxford University Press has recently released the second edition of Social Policy in Canada, co-authored by the father-daughter duo of Ernie Lightman and Naomi Lightman. I recommend this book as an excellent resource for students of social policy. It will be useful for classroom instruction, while also being a handy reference for researchers, persons who design and administer social policy, […]

Housing Affordability and Inequality: Low-Income Renters in Ontario

August 22, 2017 Edgardo Sepulveda One comment

I dedicate this post to the memory of Bonnie Briggs, who died earlier this month, in honour of her lifelong and tireless work on housing and homeless issues in Toronto. In this first of a series of housing-related posts I analyze rental housing expenditures for low-income households in Ontario. Rent is the single largest expenditure element for renters in the […]

The Ontario Chamber’s economic impact analysis of Bill 148 still doesn’t make sense

August 17, 2017 Michal Rozworski One comment

On Monday, the Keep Ontario Working coalition spearheaded by the Ontario Chamber of Commerce released an analysis of the impacts of Bill 148 in Ontario, which will introduce a $15 minimum wage by 2019 and a host of other employment standards improvements. The analysis raised many red flags: it focused only on costs, predicting very large negative impacts out of line […]

Ease up on shareholder payouts, pay your workers more instead

August 16, 2017 Angella MacEwen Leave a comment

With Alberta and Ontario raising their minimum wage to $15 per hour, and BC possibly following suit soon, the usual suspects have begun their predictable howling about how this is a bad time, or it’s happening too fast, or how it will simply hurt those we are trying to help. It is true that increasing the minimum wage may result […]

Ten Things to Know About Social Assistance in Alberta

July 25, 2017 Nick Falvo Leave a comment

I’ve just written a blog post about social assistance in Alberta. Points raised in the post include the following: -It’s very difficult to quality for social assistance in Alberta (this is also the case in all other provinces and territories). Reasons why are discussed in this previous blog post of mine. -In the 1990s, there were changes to the rules […]

Income transfers, means testing, and universality, oh, my!

July 17, 2017 Angella MacEwen Leave a comment

Overall, the NDP leadership race has provided a lot for progressive economists to be excited about. From progressive tax reform to fair wages and worker’s rights, poverty fighting income transfers to new universal social programs, the four leadership candidates have put substantive and laudable social democratic proposals on the table. Unfortunately, the last debate waded into unhelpful – if not […]

Unwarranted Gloom and Doom: The IMF on Canada and NAFTA

July 14, 2017 Andrew Jackson Leave a comment

To read the media today, one would think that NAFTA is a keystone of Canadian prosperity and that renegotiation could lead to a national economic disaster. That view has already been rebutted in a report by Scott Sinclair for the Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives. He finds that a reversion to WTO tariffs and trade rules would have only a […]

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