Posts by Alex Hemingway

Alex Hemingway

About Alex Hemingway

Alex Hemingway is a Senior Economist and Public Finance Policy Analyst at the CCPA’s BC Office. His research focuses on tax fairness, public finances, public services, and economic inequality in BC and Canada.

Alex holds a PhD in political science from the University of British Columbia, where his research examined the relationship between economic class and political inequality in the advanced industrialized world. He holds two master’s degrees from the London School of Economics (MSc Social Policy and Planning; MSc Global Politics), as well as a BA in psychology from Simon Fraser University.
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Concerns about federal wage subsidy program remain as details emerge

Apr 2, 2020
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The federal government announced new details yesterday regarding the Canadian Emergency Wage Subsidy (CEWS) that will flow to employers facing significant revenue declines amid the COVID-19 crisis. CEWS applies to businesses, non-profits and charities of all sizes (including large, highly-profitable corporations) if they are facing a decline in revenue of at least 30 per cent… View Article

Bold action in an extraordinary time

Mar 19, 2020
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The coronavirus has brought about a global public health and economic crisis with breathtaking speed. In Canada we are entering a time of emergency on a scale that is difficult to fully comprehend or anticipate. The pandemic has quickly exposed the gaping holes in our social safety net—particularly with respect to work and income security—and… View Article

Our take on BC Budget 2020

Feb 18, 2020
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BC Budget 2020 is light on new announcements. It largely marks the final year of implementation of the ambitious three-year plan set out back in 2018 to tackle some of our biggest social and economic challenges head on. The good news is that it delivers on key commitments made (and even ups the amounts slightly… View Article

A surplus at all costs? Balanced budget fixation hurts BC

Jan 20, 2020
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Almost every year at budget time, BC governments of all stripes predict public coffers are going to be worse off than they’re likely truly expecting. This habit is usually portrayed as harmless or even prudent, but when the budget room available to us is systematically underestimated, it distorts the scope of public debate. Budget lowballing… View Article

Happy new year—no more MSP!

Jan 6, 2020
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It’s a brand new year, and BC’s Medical Services Plan (MSP) premiums are no more. That’s great news because MSP premiums were a very unfair tax (or “regressive” as we economists like to say). In its first budget (in 2018), the current provincial government announced it would phase out MSP premiums by 2020 and has… View Article

BC should think twice before opening its doors to multinational ride-hailing corporations

Oct 7, 2019
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Last year, the BC government introduced legislation expected to bring ride-hailing to the province, but many questions remain about what that will look like in practice. One of the bodies responsible for working out the policy details is BC’s Passenger Transportation Board (PTB), an independent tribunal that has been handling passenger transport license applications from… View Article