The burden of the debt financing falls on the whole population, and low-income Canadians can least afford to contribute
There’s been much talk about the federal government’s attempts to enact redistributive policies to reduce income inequality in Canada. But the way these measures are funded could increase inequality. One think-tank in Quebec surveyed a panel of 70 policy experts who noted that the latest federal budget would, on the whole, reduce inequality. I contributed…
The proportion of households below the LICO has been falling for two decades and is now at its lowest level ever at 7.8%
Donald Trump isn't the only American president to say dumb things. Lyndon Johnson, expressing his concern for the well-being of the American people, said that he thought it was a shame that half the U.S. population lived at a below-average income. As anyone who ever stayed awake in math class knows, an average is a…
By 2028, women will control just under $3.8 trillion or more than one-third of total financial assets
Women in Canada currently control about $2.2 trillion of Canadian assets, a rising amount of wealth and increasing influence on the overall economy, says a new report released on Monday by CIBC Capital Markets. “More needs to be done in order to fully utilize women's economic might, but the direction is clear,” said the report,…
Discrepancies are more often the result of different choices men and women make, on and off the job
For decades, politicians, pundits and activists have clamoured about a gender pay gap and have cited statistics purporting to show that the economy is unfair to women. Women, after all, get paid only around 70 to 80 cents for every dollar earned by men. However, for just as long, studies have shown that this discrepancy…
From income to health to education, the metrics show improving conditions around the world
According to recent news reports, economic inequality is on the rise. Since inequality is the gloomy backdrop for many policy discussions, it’s unsurprising that many people in the world’s wealthiest countries worry about the issue. However, very few are aware that this increase in inequality (the magnitude and causes of which are hotly debated) is…
We’ve allowed market forces to replace a host of political-economic goals and considerations, and we’re far worse for it
Pax Americana, the long-standing U.S.-inspired post-war world order, is unravelling like a cheap carpet. Apart from catastrophes like Venezuela, Britain's chaotic retreat from the European Union, or the threat from President Donald Trump to pull the United States out of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization, there’s the shocking rise of anti-western authoritarian regimes in Iran,…
Only a free market will balance out pay inequities. If a company fails to compensate fairly, employees will simply move on
From conception to implementation, pay equity is a sham. It’s obscured in double speak, packaged in seemingly laudable goals and promises great results. However, it can’t deliver them because it’s based on false premises. Any good that comes of it is far outweighed by the harm. That’s why Canadians should be wary of any legislation…
Stephania Varalli talks about her own journey and how Women of Influence works to help others find their path to success
Stephania Varalli is co-CEO and head at media of Women of Influence. What’s Women of Influence and what does it do? Varalli: Our organization aims to help achieve workplace gender equality by inspiring and empowering individuals. We know that the system is biased against women, and it will take time and multiple, parallel efforts to…
Nov. 16 event to bring together leading experts on a variety of issues around impact investing
The time is ripe for aligning wealth with social change, according to the upcoming fourth annual Capital for Cause Impact Investing summit in Calgary on Nov. 16. Organizers of the event say the summit brings together leading experts on a variety of issues around impact investing. The purpose is to provide relevant and accurate information…
An open letter to Premier Doug Ford and Minister Lisa MacLeod concerning the cancellation of the Ontario basic income pilot
Dear Premier Doug Ford and Children, Community and Social Services Minister Lisa MacLeod, We, collectively, represent the principal investigators, research teams and stakeholder groups behind several distinct basic income experiments underway in Finland, Scotland, the Netherlands, the United States, Spain, Kenya and India. We profoundly regret that you chose to cancel the Ontario Basic Income…
Ideas about taxing, restricting or abolishing your inheritance have been floated by western social thinkers for centuries
Should Canadians be taxed on inheritance? The question is increasingly being asked, but the answer is not straight-forward. This discussion is inherently linked to maintaining inequality from one generation to another – and basically to a skewing of the playing field of life from the start. Such debates aren’t new. In fact, they centre on…
Age and accumulated wealth account for much of the discrepancy. And that's just normal life-cycle economics
Much ado about nothing. The title of the Shakespearean comedy comes to mind when I think about the attention devoted to wealth inequality in recent years. The left's (and much of the major media's) preoccupation with economic inequality is fundamentally misplaced and has diverted attention away from the real problems we face. For example, take…
Reducing barriers to adding women to the workforce in Canada could add $150 billion to $420 billion in GDP over 10 years
By Denise Mullen and Kristine St.-Laurent Business Council of British Columbia In British Columbia and Canada more broadly, the proportion of females aged 15 and over who participate in the labour force remains nine percentage points below that of males. And it has stayed this way since the early 1990s. Why does this matter? Sometimes,…
The fundamental problem with relative measures of poverty is that they often give us results that border on absurd
Does Canada need a new measure of poverty? That’s what Michael Wolfson, member of the Centre for Health Law, Policy and Ethics at the University of Ottawa, recently argued. According to Wolfson, poverty (in the Canadian context) is hard to measure because it’s connected to issues such as disability, literacy, food insecurity and the like.…
The focus on consent has made men all over the world stop and think. Am I one of those men?
Strangely, this weird moment in history is a good time to be alive. I've been a feminist most of my adult life, at least since I realized power imbalances were rampant in present and past societies. After dedicating most of the 1990s and 2000s to fighting the good fight in the trenches, I burned out and left…
There’s been much talk about the federal government’s attempts to enact redistributive policies to reduce income inequality in Canada. But the way these measures are funded could increase inequality. One think-tank in Quebec surveyed a panel of 70 policy experts who noted that the latest federal budget would, on the whole, reduce inequality. I contributed…
