Policy is making us house-rich, everything-else-poor – Financial Post Op-Ed
In the fall of 2020, barely noticed amid the stresses of COVID-19, Canada’s economy passed a peculiar milestone. Residential investment surpassed all other business investment — more than for nonresidential structures, machinery and equipment, and intellectual property products combined. That was unprecedented. As recently as the early 2000s, it would have been inconceivable. As a nation, we risk ending up with nice roofs over our heads, but without the incomes we need for everything else we want. House-rich, and everything-else-poor.
Because a growing economy and inflation make recent experience hard to compare with what happened decades ago, it helps to measure investment relative to GDP. Until the…
Laurin, Dahir – Not so Fast, Please, on Automatic Tax Filing
To: Diane Lebouthillier, Minister of National Revenue From: Alexandre Laurin and Nicholas Dahir Date: February 10, 2022 Re: Not so Fast, Please, on Automatic Tax Filing In Canada, most government cash benefit payments require recipients to file a tax return. Individuals who fail to participate in the tax system – often society’s most vulnerable – too often forgo […] Show Us Our Money: Fiscal Accountability in Canada’s Cities, 2022
The budgets governments present around the beginning of their fiscal year and the financial statements they publish after the fiscal year has ended are critical tools for legislators and voters. To non-experts, the transparency of these documents matters: from them, readers should be able to understand the government’s plans, see how results differed from […] Automatic Tax Filing: A Challenging Idea for Canada
In Canada, most government cash benefit payments require recipients to file a tax return. Individuals who fail to participate in the tax system, often the most vulnerable in society, may forgo important government benefits (or even entitlements to government services when such services are tied to tax return information). The September 2020 Speech from […] Jon Johnson – Digital Taxes – A USTR Shot Across Canada’s Bow
From: Jon Johnson To: Global Affairs Canada Date: January 24, 2022 Re: Digital Taxes – A USTR Shot Across Canada’s Bow In its fall fiscal update, the federal government confirmed its intention to proceed with the implementation of a 3-percent tax on revenue from certain digital services that it first announced in Budget 2021, and was discussed here. […] Dahir, Laurin – The Net Cost of Pandemic Emergency/Recovery Benefits
From: Nick Dahir and Alex Laurin To: Canadian Policy Watchers Date: January 14, 2022 Re: The Net Cost of Pandemic Emergency/Recovery Benefits Statistics Canada’s updated version of its Social Policy Simulation Database and Model (SPSD/M) integrates all of the extraordinary provincial and federal COVID-related cash benefits delivered in 2020. Giving us, for the first time, […] Drew Yewchuk – Why Alberta’s Plan for the Unpaid Municipal Taxes of Oil and Gas Companies Won’t Work
From: Drew Yewchuk To: Alberta’s orphan well watchers Date: December 14, 2021 Re: Why Alberta’s Plan for the Unpaid Municipal Taxes of Oil and Gas Companies Won’t Work New Alberta legislation gives municipal governments the power to place liens on pipelines and wells of companies that fail to pay their assessed municipal taxes as part of the province’s struggle […] Legault, Brown – Four Design Flaws in Ottawa’s Underutilized Housing Tax
From: Guy Legault and Keith Brown To: Finance Minister Chrystia Freeland Date: December 8, 2021 Re: Four Design Flaws in Ottawa’s Underutilized Housing Tax Last April’s federal budget contained a number of announcements relating to future tax changes. One tax proposal that did not attract much media attention or scrutiny was the government’s plan (originally announced in the 2020 […] Don Drummond – Upcoming Fall Fiscal Update Must Answer Questions About Growth Strategy
From: Don Drummond To: Finance Minister Chrystia Freeland Date: December 2, 2021 Re: Upcoming Fall Fiscal Update Must Answer Questions About Growth Strategy Fiscal Updates were created to support a national dialogue on the solutions to challenges without the pressure of immediate policy action as attends a budget. There has never been a greater need for such a […] Kronick, Laurin – Taxing Big Banks and Insurers – Unlikely to Go the Way Planned
From: Jeremy M. Kronick and Alexandre Laurin To: Finance Minister Chrystia Freeland Date: November 30, 2021 Re: Taxing Big Banks and Insurers – Unlikely to Go the Way Planned Most people understand and agree with the notion that taxation should be progressive – people who earn more should bear a greater burden of funding the services provided by government […] The “Demand Stabilization Mechanism”: Using Temporary GST Cuts as Automatic Fiscal Policy
Automatic GST Cuts Should Be In Ottawa’s Tool Box To Fight Downturns The federal government should consider automatic cuts to the goods and services tax (GST) in downturns as a complementary fiscal policy measure states the report. Authors Robin Boadway and Thorsten Koeppl propose an automatic mechanism that would use temporary cuts in the GST […] Inaccurate Budgets Are A Big Problem
Canada’s federal, provincial and territorial governments routinely miss their budget projections. Although their projections for both expenses and revenues tend to be lower than what actually happens, the absolute size of misses in either direction also matters for accountability. Voters and legislators can have more confidence in budget projections if measures such as the absolute […]