In a new report released today by the CCPA, I revisit the important question of who really pays for university education. Convention wisdom has it that the public heavily subsidizes post-secondary education. The illusion of a subsidy comes from the fact that tuition fees, high as they are, don’t cover the entire cost of education. [...]
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.
Breaking down financial barriers to higher education is more affordable than you think
January 25th, 2012 · Iglika Ivanova · No Comments · Economy, Education, Employment & labour, Women
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A prescription for health care reform: think integration & collaboration
January 16th, 2012 · Iglika Ivanova · 1 Comment · Health care, Provincial budget & finance, Transparency & accountability
This morning the CCPA released a new report (co-authored by yours truly) that looks at the thorny issue of health care reform in BC and identifies some practical, evidence-based strategies that have been successful in improving quality of care and controlling costs in other jurisdictions. The paper comes out at a time when all Canadian [...]
Tags: BC·health care
Are international students the key to jobs in BC
September 21st, 2011 · Iglika Ivanova · 1 Comment · Economy, Education, Employment & labour
The second day of the roll out of the Premier’s jobs agenda was marked by a single announcement made at Thompson Rivers University in Kamloops. The focus of this piece of the jobs puzzle was ramping up international education and regional skills training. The idea of leveraging education, especially post-secondary education, to boost the economy [...]
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The real impact of HST’s defeat on provincial finances
September 9th, 2011 · Iglika Ivanova · 16 Comments · Economy, Provincial budget & finance, Taxes, Transparency & accountability
On Sept 8, Finance Minister Kevin Falcon released a much anticipated update on provincial finances. The Minster’s presentation focused on highlighting the cost of the move back to PST/GST, providing some large numbers for the media headlines, instead of looking at the big picture. In case you missed the media coverage, the provincial coffers are [...]
HST referendum: was the vote split along income lines?
August 26th, 2011 · Iglika Ivanova · 7 Comments · Economy, Poverty, inequality & welfare, Taxes
One of the first things I did after the HST referendum results came out today was look at how different electoral districts voted. I noticed that West Vancouver, North Vancouver and Point Grey had the highest number of “No” votes (to keep the HST) while Surrey and East Van districts had the highest number of [...]
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So the HST was defeated. Now what?
August 26th, 2011 · Iglika Ivanova · 45 Comments · Economy, Poverty, inequality & welfare, Provincial budget & finance, Taxes
Earlier today, Elections BC announced the much anticipated HST referendum results. British Columbians have voted to scrap the HST. The best part about having the results is that now we can move on from the narrow issue of what type of sales tax is better and focus our energies on some of the bigger issues [...]
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What is a middle class income these days?
July 20th, 2011 · Iglika Ivanova · Comments Off · Poverty, inequality & welfare
Whenever we consider the pros and cons of a new policy, we want to know if it benefits or hurts the poor, the middle class and those who are better off. Often, the answer depends on how we define each of these groups. It’s said that 99% of Canadians think of themselves as middle class, [...]
Tags: income·inequality·middle class
How much does poverty cost BC?
July 14th, 2011 · Iglika Ivanova · Comments Off · Employment & labour, Poverty, inequality & welfare, Provincial budget & finance
We’ve known for a long time that we all pay for poverty. We just didn’t know how much. This is the question I investigate in my latest CCPA report The Cost of Poverty in BC. If you’re not in the mood for reading the report, you can watch a short video that summarizes the findings [...]
Tags: Economy·poverty·poverty reduction
How income splitting works and who does it work for: some practical examples
March 29th, 2011 · Iglika Ivanova · Comments Off · Economy, Poverty, inequality & welfare, Taxes, Women
Income-splitting works by allowing families to allocate more of their earned income to a lower tax bracket by sharing the earned income between the spouses when filing taxes. The maximum amount of income that can be split this way is $50,000. Income-splitting makes a difference to a family’s tax bill because we have a progressive [...]
Income splitting: a poorly targeted non-commitment with negative labour market implications
March 29th, 2011 · Iglika Ivanova · 6 Comments · Economy, Education, Employment & labour, Poverty, inequality & welfare, Taxes, Women
I was on the CBC Early Edition this morning, discussing Stephen Harper’s first election promise: income splitting for families with children. If you missed it, you can listen to the podcast here (I’m at about 1:08:00 onwards). Since five minutes is too short for any kind of informed discussion, and I think that informed discussions [...]
Tags: Conservatives·families·income splitting·Stephen Harper·Taxes
