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Interest rate hikes, housing costs, rising taxes and stagnating wages are all crucial. We need to address these problems
What can't happen won't happen. If incomes are stagnant while taxes, prices and interest rates rise, people will fail to pay their debts – as is the case for 120,000 Canadians every year. The long-term buildup of urban house prices had already made people financially vulnerable and consumer insolvencies in Canada increased by 9.2 per…
From income to health to education, the metrics show improving conditions around the world
According to recent news reports, economic inequality is on the rise. Since inequality is the gloomy backdrop for many policy discussions, it’s unsurprising that many people in the world’s wealthiest countries worry about the issue. However, very few are aware that this increase in inequality (the magnitude and causes of which are hotly debated) is…
First Nations children are denied the same funding for health care, social services and education as non-Indigenous kids
By Jane Cordy and Raymonde Gagné National Child Day, which commemorates the adoption of the United Nations Conventions on the Rights of the Child, has come and gone for another year, but Canada cannot celebrate much progress. Yes, the federal government has established a Poverty Reduction Strategy; there is a Youth Council to advise the prime…
There are no status cards providing one group with superior rights. There are no special financial privileges
Mexico offers a social model that Canada should consider. Oaxaca is one of the best preserved colonial cities in Mexico. It has a bustling centre, rich with busy markets – street vendors and music wherever you go. Oaxaca state has the largest percentage of Indigenous people in Mexico. Zapotec, Mixtec and other peoples mingle in…
Raising taxes to fund spending on the poor discourages wealth creation and productive work effort, shrinking the economic pie
Instead of having government take more from the rich in hopes that it will go to the poor, a far better poverty reduction strategy is to encourage economic growth and innovation. Yale University economist William Nordhaus was one of the winners of the Nobel Prize in economics this year for his work on analyzing the…
In striving to win, we realize our potential and learn to work with people we may not normally associate with
Former South African president Nelson Mandela said, “Sport has the power to change the world.” This may seem a preposterous statement when we look at the greed, corruption and division that often makes the headlines in the world of sport. We read of doping scandals, owners not taking responsibility for the safety of their players…
Many minimum wage earners live with their parents and not in impoverished circumstances, says report
The debate over minimum wage is a heated one and a new report by Canadian public policy think-tank the Fraser Institute is sure to fuel more fire in this controversial issue. The study, Increasing the Minimum Wage in Alberta: A Flawed Anti-Poverty Policy, was released on Thursday. It said raising the province’s minimum wage will…
The abrupt cancellation of Ontario's basic income project has broad impact on international research, as well as devastating participants
I recently participated in a panel in Finland with representatives of basic income experiments from Finland, the Netherlands, India and Scotland. My report on the cancellation of Ontario’s Basic Income Pilot project was received with stunned disbelief. On July 31, three months after enrolment was complete and before the first annual follow-up survey could be…
To have effective policies, we need clear, understandable indicators for the most important dimensions of poverty
The federal government is to be congratulated on its just-released Poverty Reduction Strategy. The strategy, running to over 100 pages, endorses the idea of an official poverty line, relieving Statistics Canada from the impossible task of finding a purely statistical basis of definition. It further endorses the idea that poverty has many dimensions – including…
If the world has anything to teach Canada, it’s not how to treat migrants. It’s how to deliver health care for its own
Are you a big-hearted person who likes to help everyone? If so, you probably suffered a phase where you offered too much of yourself: heart, time and money. Then you realized if you gave out too much, you would just plain give out. Despite your best efforts, there would always be more people in need…
What can't happen won't happen. If incomes are stagnant while taxes, prices and interest rates rise, people will fail to pay their debts – as is the case for 120,000 Canadians every year. The long-term buildup of urban house prices had already made people financially vulnerable and consumer insolvencies in Canada increased by 9.2 per…
