Poverty, inequality & welfare

How to Destroy a Good Poverty Line

Feb 17, 2012
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[The following piece was authored by Michael Goldberg, Steve Kerstetter and Seth Klein] More than a decade ago, the federal and provincial governments started work on a new poverty line – the Market Basket Measure (MBM). After decades of distracting and divisive debates about poverty lines, Human Resources and Skills Development Canada crafted a methodology… View Article

BC dead last on inequality: BC Stats

Jan 30, 2012
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Last Friday BC Stats, the BC government’s statistical agency, weighed in on the topic of income inequality.  The CCPA has talked about this subject for years and it is nice to see that BC Stats has not only acknowledged the problem but says that: Compared to other provinces, BC ranked dead last in 2009, with… View Article

Top 10 Reasons for Upper-Income Tax Increases

Jan 17, 2012
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Some feel we shouldn’t increase taxes on upper-income folks. After all, people know best how to spend their money, whereas the government will only waste it on needless activities. Well then, I humbly submit the following Top 10 list of reasons for upper-income tax increases (in descending order). #10: Ridiculous real estate. Check out Vancouver’s… View Article

Tackling inequality means rethinking upper-income tax rates

Dec 23, 2011
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2011 was the year rising inequality finally exploded into the mainstream discourse. A few year-end reading recommendations: Victoria Times-Colonist editorial writer Paul Willcocks wrote a terrific piece on the subject (you can find it here); and similarly, a group of UBC economists (including CCPA research associate David Green) authored a series on inequality for the… View Article

Growing support for cities to adopt living wage

Nov 16, 2011
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New developments since my recent post calling on municipalities to lead the way on adopting living wage policies: First, over just over 100 candidates have responded to the Open Letter issued by the Living Wage for Families campaign, covering almost every Lower Mainland municipality. Almost all have expressed support for this proposal or at least… View Article

Living Wage Policy: Why Municipal Governments should lead the way

Oct 25, 2011
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By Michael McCarthy Flynn and Seth Klein The Living Wage for Families Campaign, along with 54 organizations representing over 300,000 British Columbians, recently issued an Open Letter calling on all municipal election candidates to help low-income families in their cities by passing a Living Wage policy if they are elected (available here). Many families are… View Article

Occupy Canada: media pundits vs. reality

Oct 24, 2011
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The Occupy Wall Street/Occupy Canada protests seem to be occupying – and perhaps unhinging – the minds of media pundits – at least, those who are mired in the dogma of “free market” fundamentalism. One recent example from CBC Television came in the form of a personal attack on author Chris Hedges. A well-known American… View Article