Is Jim Flaherty sticking it to Stephen Harper on family income splitting?

Published February 10, 2014

Updated Feb. 12 What to make of Jim Flaherty musing that Stephen Harper’s promise to bring in family income splitting needs a serious rethink? Just before tabling the federal budget, Flaherty told Global’s The West Block with Tom Clark on Sunday that opponents of the proposal “might be right” and the idea requires a “fulsome […]

3 ways conservatives peddle retirement insecurity

Published February 3, 2014

Need more proof conservative solutions to Canada’s retirement crisis (encourage people to save more in private savings; block the expansion of the Canada Pension Plan; and get rid of defined benefit pensions) make no sense? Here are the latest examples: 1. Winning the lottery is not a retirement plan A new survey of BMO Financial Group found […]

Corporate Canada done paying taxes for year, hoarding $541 billion in cash

Published January 29, 2014

Canadian corporations are done paying taxes for the year, according to a new study that links massive corporate tax giveaways to hoarding hundreds of billions in cash. Wednesday is Corporate Tax Freedom Day, meaning that corporations have now paid their entire share of taxes for the year to all levels of government, the Canadian Labour […]

Conservative income splitting plan is tax gift for wealthiest families: study

Published January 28, 2014

The Conservative government’s plan to extend income splitting to families is skewed heavily in favour of the wealthiest, with the vast majority of families receiving no benefit at all, a new study has found. The Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives analysed the Conservative plan to allow parents with children under 18 to split up to […]

Income splitting misinformation campaign: volume 10

Published December 30, 2013

After the Harper government’s annus horribilis, a former Conservative cabinet minister is musing about how his former colleagues could use the upcoming federal budget to “dangle the carrot of income splitting” for families. “The net effect would be lower taxes for almost everyone,” writes Monte Solberg in the Toronto Sun. That’s just plain wrong. Harper’s […]

How much does it cost to snub Parliament?

Published December 18, 2013

When Conservatives decided to forgo parliamentary tradition and release their fall economic and fiscal update last month in Edmonton in front of business executives instead of in Ottawa before MPs, the party of “fiscal responsibility” coughed up plenty of cash for the dog and pony show. The luncheon with Finance Minister Jim Flaherty was “hosted […]