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 'recovery'
The real impact of HST’s defeat on provincial finances
September 9th, 2011 · Iglika Ivanova · 16 Comments · Economy, Provincial budget & finance, Taxes, Transparency & accountability
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
In defense of the stimulus
March 25th, 2010 · Iglika Ivanova · 3 Comments · Economy, Taxes
Earlier this week, the Fraser Institute published a controversial report which argued that the government stimulus did not do much for economic growth in the last two quarters of 2009, suggesting that government spending on infrastructure was useless. While their analysis suffers from serious shortcomings, which I outlined in a previous blog post here, their [...]
Tags: fiscal policy·government spending·recession·recovery·role of government·stimulus
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
