CCPA Policy Note

Iglika Ivanova’s Blog Posts

Iglika Ivanova is the Public Interest Researcher at the CCPA’s BC Office. Her work investigates issues and trends in health care, education and social programs, and examines the impact of public services on quality of life. She also looks into issues of government finance, taxation and privatization and how they relate to the accessibility and quality of public services. Iglika’s other research interests focus on the Canadian labour market and in particular trends in income inequality, low wage work and the integration of immigrants.

Reality check on government spending: is the overspending fear mongering justified

May 9th, 2013 · Iglika Ivanova · 2 Comments · Economy, Provincial budget & finance

Both main parties in this election campaign are accusing the other of being big spenders. The BC Liberals claim the BC NDP is making election promises that are too expensive and argue the 1990s (the last time the NDP was in government) was a time of particularly high spending. The BC NDP points out that [...]

[Read more →]

Tags: ··········

Vancouver child poverty rate is second-highest in Canada

May 8th, 2013 · Iglika Ivanova · No Comments · Children & youth, Poverty, inequality & welfare

The story of child poverty in Canada is very much an urban story. One out of every 10 children living in urban areas was poor in 2010, compared to one in 20 children living in non-urban areas. Three quarters (or 76%) of all poor children in Canada lived in one of the urban centres shown [...]

[Read more →]

Tags: ··

Living wage reports reveal a big gap between actual wages and the costs of raising a family in BC

May 2nd, 2013 · Iglika Ivanova · 1 Comment · Economy, Education, Employment & labour, Poverty, inequality & welfare, Taxes, Women

How much do working parents need to earn to be able to afford to live in our community? There reports released today provide the answer for the three largest regional districts in BC, home to 2/3 of this province’s population: $19.62/hour in Metro Vancouver, $18.73/hour in Greater Victoria and $16.37/hour in the Fraser Valley.

[Read more →]

Tags: ···

Are average Canadians paying too much in taxes?

April 24th, 2013 · Iglika Ivanova · 4 Comments · Economy, Poverty, inequality & welfare, Provincial budget & finance, Taxes

On April 23, the Fraser Institute released the annual update of their misleading Consumer Tax Index report. The piece is meant to feed the anti-tax sentiment with numbers sprinkled liberally for their shock value instead of providing any meaningful analysis. Here are some of the main flaws with the report’s methodology. If what follows sounds [...]

[Read more →]

Tags: ···

Fairness by design: a framework for tax reform in Canada

February 14th, 2013 · Iglika Ivanova · Comments Off · Taxes, Transparency & accountability

A new CCPA (National) report by Marc Lee and myself argues that Canada’s tax system needs a “fairness” overhaul and presents a framework for progressive tax reform. Those of you who have been following our tax work so far will find this study a great complement to the BC Tax Options Paper. Tax policy is [...]

[Read more →]

Tags: ·······

BC throne speech repackages old announcements, lacks courage and vision

February 12th, 2013 · Iglika Ivanova · Comments Off · Climate change, Economy, Poverty, inequality & welfare, Provincial budget & finance, Taxes

Today’s Speech from the Throne reads more like a list of what this government sees as its main achievements than a true framework for going forward. New initiatives are few and far between, sandwiched between pages of self-congratulatory recap of the natural gas strategy, the jobs plan and highlights from the last budget. All in [...]

[Read more →]

Tags: ···

Progressive tax options for BC or how to raise needed revenues and make our tax system more fair

January 30th, 2013 · Iglika Ivanova · 2 Comments · Economy, Poverty, inequality & welfare, Provincial budget & finance, Taxes

In a new report we released this week, Seth Klein and I show there’s a clear need of tax reform in BC, both to raise new revenues and to make our tax system more fair (Vancouver Sun oped here, CTV News story here). As the report’s title suggest, this is all about options. Instead of [...]

[Read more →]

Tags: ······

Time to Rethink The Way We Fund Higher Education

October 9th, 2012 · Iglika Ivanova · Comments Off · Children & youth, Economy, Education, Employment & labour, Provincial budget & finance, Taxes

This September, like every year, a new group of high school graduates headed to college or university to pursue higher education. But today’s generation of students is in for a very different experience from the ones their parents had. On campuses across the country shiny new buildings are popping up, bearing corporate logos or the [...]

[Read more →]

Tags: ······

Cost of Learning Growing Faster than Incomes

September 11th, 2012 · Iglika Ivanova · Comments Off · Children & youth, Education, Employment & labour

A new report by the CCPA, Eduflation and the High Cost of Learning, shows that average university tuition bill in Canada has grown three times faster than inflation over the last 20 years. It’s also outpaced the growth of family incomes, making university considerably less affordable for the average Canadian family than it used to [...]

[Read more →]

Tags: ·········

To address health inequalities, look beyond the role of individual responsibility

August 13th, 2012 · Iglika Ivanova · 6 Comments · Health care, Poverty, inequality & welfare

A new report by the Canadian Medical Association provides a timely reminder that money buys better health, even in a country with a universal public healthcare system. A poll commissioned by the CMA found a large and increasing gap between the health status of  Canadians in lower income groups (household income less than $30,000) and [...]

[Read more →]

Tags: ····


keep looking »