The idea that we can easily tax rich people with impunity is not supported by the evidence
Since the last federal election campaign, the NDP has been continually beating the drum for a wealth tax. The party’s latest push comes in its supplementary report to the 2021 budget consultations. Their case for the tax, however, is based on significant economic errors. First, the NDP claims that a wealth tax has been recommended…
Governments inevitably make a mess of social welfare programs, wasting money, discouraging work and encouraging dependence
Long before the COVID-19 recession, the generosity of Canadians, measured by charitable donations, was already steadily falling. From 2008 to 2018, the percentage of tax-filers donating to charity fell from 24.1 per cent to 19.4 per cent. And the percentage of aggregate income donated to charity fell from 0.62 per cent to 0.54 per cent.…
Competition is always better than monopoly and the education system is no exception
The Ontario government recently announced a new elementary school math curriculum. It’s likely a positive step but more fundamental funding changes are necessary to truly improve the province’s education system. The province will return to a “back to basics” approach to math aimed at improving standardized test scores. It will also introduce lessons on financial…
By reducing business profits, unionization ultimately makes workers worse off, diminishing employment and wages
A recent story in The Monitor – a magazine published by the left-wing, union-friendly think-tank Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives – provides an important lesson in basic economics. The headline triumphantly proclaims: “Gig workers win the right to unionize.” The end result was unfortunate for the workers, however. An editor’s note at the top of…
The Ontario government must take decisive action to get the budget under control when the COVID-19 crisis has passed
Ontario is the most indebted sub-sovereign borrower in the world. Interim financial results for the 2019-20 fiscal year show that the Ontario government ran a $9.2-billion deficit. According to estimates from economists, the deficit is likely to more than triple, largely as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic and economic lockdown, to around $29.3 billion…
Whether on corporate income, labour, international trade or anything else, taxes in Canada impose a huge economic cost
As Canadians prepare their tax returns, it’s fair to ask if we get good value for all the taxes we pay. We have a little extra time to ponder this, since the federal government has given Canadians another month to file tax returns as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic, to June. 1. So do…
COVID-19 has meant some shortages at grocery stores. But overall, the supply chains developed over decades fill our needs
Even as COVID-19 has put much of the economy into shutdown and caused a run at grocery stores on some staples, most of us remain generally well-supplied with food. That’s something to be thankful for. It’s one of the significant wonders of the modern economic system that most people, very few of whom are directly…
The best way to enrich society is to encourage billionaires to produce even more. We should never tax creativity of any kind out of existence
According to many, confiscatory taxes should be levied against the wealthiest members of society until billionaires are taxed out of existence. Just ask devotees of U.S. Democratic Party luminaries Bernie Sanders and Elizabeth Warren, their ideological counterparts in left-wing circles in Canada, and even 62 per cent of the audience at a recent TVO debate…
A more open immigration policy is one of the easiest ways a government can increase economic freedom, improve growth and cut poverty
One of the big policy issues for the federal government this year, as well as in the Conservative leadership race, is immigration. It’s an area worthy of attention. By a margin of 63 to seven per cent, according to a recent Leger poll, Conservative voters want their new leader to decrease rather than increase immigration…
When it comes to how and how much workers should save for retirement, the federal government doesn’t know better than Canadians themselves
As the calendar flipped to 2020, the federal government again made the Canada Pension Plan (CPP) tax more expensive, even though CPP doesn’t help the economy or workers. The combined employee and employer contribution rate has risen from 10.2 per cent in 2019 to 10.5 per cent this year, while the maximum taxable amount (but…