We need to scrap corporate welfare in order to restore Canada’s business tax advantage over the U.S.
It’s been more than two months since federal Finance Minister Bill Morneau said he would study Canada’s crumbling business tax advantage – while cautioning against any “impulsive” measures in response to tax changes south of the border that overnight wiped away a decade-plus business tax advantage over the United States. Yet, despite a chorus of…
Such a program would weaken the incentives to work for lower-income Canadians and people not strongly tied to the labour force
By Charles Lammam and Hugh MacIntyre The Fraser Institute Almost 50 years ago, a Canadian Senate report declared that a basic income “is an idea whose time has come.” Ever since, the idea resurfaces every so often, with support that spans the political spectrum. Most recently, a Parliamentary Budget Office (PBO) report reinvigorated the debate…
CPP expansion could result in a reduction in domestic investment up to $114 billion from 2019 to 2030
By Charles Lammam and Taylor Jackson The Fraser Institute Canada has a growing investment problem. Business investment (excluding residential structures like houses and condos) has dropped nearly 20 per cent since 2014. The level of business investment (as a share of the economy) in Canada is now second lowest among 17 advanced countries. Meanwhile, foreign…
Canadians receive meagre rates of return on CPP contributions and the program has other key shortcomings
By Charles Lammam and Hugh MacIntyre The Fraser Institute Misperceptions plague the public’s view of the Canada Pension Plan (CPP), despite efforts to provide some clarity. Mark Machin, chief executive officer of the Canada Pension Plan Investment Board (CPPIB) – the organization tasked with investing CPP contributions – recently hit the road in a cross-country…
The advantage this country once had over the United States has been spun on its head. And that means investment will start heading south in droves
By Charles Lammam and Hugh MacIntyre The Fraser Institute Former prime minister Pierre Trudeau once famously quipped that living next to the United States “is in some ways like sleeping with an elephant.” By this he meant that developments in the U.S. often have an outsized effect on Canada. Canadians, like it or not, must always be…
At the same time, fewer Canadians are volunteering their time – and it all means that vital charitable groups are struggling
Canadian governments can begin to control their debt and deficits by aligning public-sector pay with the private sector
By Charles Lammam and Milagros Palacios The Fraser Institute Seven years after the 2008-09 recession, the federal and many provincial governments continue to struggle with deficits, spending more than the revenues they collect and digging deeper into debt. All told, governments in Canada are projecting they will rack up $43.8 billion in deficits this year…
In the global economy, the corporate tax rate is an important component in driving economic growth, investment and workers' wages
Donald Trump's election has created a lot of uncertainty about U.S. economic policies. But the president-elect has been consistent about his business taxation plan. And that plan has clear implications for Canada. Trump proposes to dramatically reduce the federal corporate income tax rate, from 35 per cent to 15 per cent. This policy would significantly reduce…
Prolonged poor economic performance has meant the unthinkable: Ontario’s average income is now below the rest of the country
By Ben Eisen and Charles Lammam The Fraser Institute The Ontario government's recent update on the province's economy offers a brief preamble on the 2008-09 recession's challenges, then this shockingly out-of-touch sentence: “Our plan is working.” Nothing could be further from the truth. It’s difficult to know where to begin pointing out the problems with…
Digging deeper into debt while investing little in growth-enhancing infrastructure
By Charles Lammam and Hugh MacIntyre The Fraser Institute Since coming into power, the federal Liberals have said they would pursue deficit spending to make investments that will drive Canada’s long-term economic growth. As Finance Minister Bill Morneau recently put it, “we believe that we should be focused on making investments for today and for…