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 [...]
Entries Tagged as 'Economy'
The real impact of HST’s defeat on provincial finances
September 9th, 2011 · Iglika Ivanova · 16 Comments · Economy, Provincial budget & finance, Taxes, Transparency & accountability
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
Will the HST boost job growth and when?
July 6th, 2010 · Iglika Ivanova · 1 Comment · Economy, Employment & labour, Poverty, inequality & welfare, Taxes
As BC and Ontario have now started paying the HST at the till, many people may be wondering when exactly can we expect to see those jobs postings opening up. This is a good question. According to analysis commissioned by the BC government from economist Jack Mintz, titled British Columbia’s Harmonized Sales Tax: A Giant [...]
On the economic impacts of the HST
July 5th, 2010 · Iglika Ivanova · 1 Comment · Economy, Employment & labour, Poverty, inequality & welfare, Taxes
My previous HST post focused on the impact of the tax on households and I concluded that it’s likely that it will cost families and that some modest income families will be hurt by the tax. Is this sufficient reason to campaign for the tax to be repealed? Not necessarily. Public policy is about choices [...]
The job market may be recovering but some jobs are not coming back
May 18th, 2010 · Iglika Ivanova · 2 Comments · Economy, Employment & labour
A recent article in The New York Times illustrates this point with the story of an unemployed administrative assistant in her 50s, who has not been able to find a job for over two years after being laid off. As the journalist explains, her difficulties are likely not the result of age discrimination, the weak [...]
Tags: Economy·employment·recovery
Job creation alone will not solve BC’s poverty problem
April 29th, 2010 · Iglika Ivanova · Comments Off · Economy, Employment & labour, Poverty, inequality & welfare, Provincial budget & finance
Whenever he’s confronted with questions about BC’s record high child poverty rates or by the growing income inequality in the province, our Premier maintains that the best social policy is a job. In fact, reducing the costs of doing business in BC seems to be this government’s chief economic strategy. Consider the HST, for example, [...]
Tags: Economy·HST·job creation·OECD·poverty·poverty reduction·working poverty
The role of stimulus spending in the recovery
March 24th, 2010 · Iglika Ivanova · 1 Comment · Economy, Provincial budget & finance, Transparency & accountability
Yesterday, the Fraser Institute published a new report, which argues that the government stimulus did not drive Canadian economic growth in the last two quarters of 2009, suggesting that government spending on infrastructure was useless for the economy. The report earned the scorn of Federal Finance Minister Jim Flaherty, who called it ”poorly done and it’s [...]
Tags: Economy·Fraser Institute·recession·recovery·role of government·stimulus
BC’s budget deficit third smallest in Canada
March 1st, 2010 · Iglika Ivanova · 4 Comments · Economy, Provincial budget & finance, Transparency & accountability
Media attention may still be firmly focused on athletes and tourists today, but we’re already starting to see hints about what will dominate BC’s post-Olympics discourse. The fear-mongering around our provincial debt and deficits is making a return
Is it time to stop worrying about the economy?
February 22nd, 2010 · Iglika Ivanova · 1 Comment · Economy, Provincial budget & finance
If you read the papers in this province, you’d think BC had long forgotten about the recession. Every bit of economic good news is trumpeted enthusiastically, from small increases in employment to the latest growth forecast released by private sector economists. Yet economic forecasting is a notoriously difficult business. Just a year ago, we saw [...]
Tags: economic forecasting·economic growth·Economy·recession·recovery
Will job creation solve our poverty problems?
September 28th, 2009 · Iglika Ivanova · Comments Off · Economy, Employment & labour, Poverty, inequality & welfare
You may recall that during the leaders’ debate prior to last May’s election, Gordon Campbell argued that creating jobs is the best poverty reduction strategy out there. Since his re-election, the government’s attention has been focused on the economy, while social policy has taken a back seat. But is this the best approach? A recent [...]
Tags: Economy·employment·job creation·OECD·poverty·poverty reduction·recession·working poor
