168 research outputs found
Débâcle à la Caisse : Que faire avec le régime de rentes du Québec?
No full textIn the last several years, the financial situation of the Quebec Pension Plan (QPP) has been deteriorating, a trend evidenced by the latest actuarial projections. In this e-brief, Senior Policy Analyst Alexandre Laurin points out how last year’s losses at the Caisse de dépôt et placement du Québec – more than 26 percent – could lead to a complete depletion of the QPP reserves 12 years earlier than expected, by 2037.Quebec Pension Plan (QPP), Caisse de dépôt et placement du Québec
Faster, Younger, Richer? The Fond Hope and Sobering Reality of Immigration's Impact on Canada's Demographic and Economic Future
No full textMore and younger immigrants cannot, on their own, offset the impact of low past fertility on Canadian workforce growth, old-age dependency, and incomes per person. Later retirement, higher fertility, and faster productivity growth are more powerful tools to ease the stress of demographic change on Canadian living standards.economic growth and innovation, immigration, demographics, aging
Lagging Behind: Productivity and the Good Fortune of Canadian Provinces
No full textThe good fortune of bountiful natural resources is not enough to ensure rising incomes for Canadians in the long term. Growing labour productivity is the most important determinant of future economic welfare and on that measure, Canada is falling behind its major trading partners. Increasing labour productivity does not mean workers working harder for less money, a common canard. It means more investment in one of three factors: 1) human capital (education or other learning); 2) physical capital (plants or other infrastructure); or 3) technology. Just as an individual’s income is in the long-run dependent on how productive he or she is, so too is that of the nation as a whole. If Canada fails to improve its productivity, the incomes of both individual Canadians and the nation as a whole will fall behind those of other developed countries.Economic Growth and innovation, Canadian provinces, labour productivity
Western METRics: Marginal Effective Tax Rates in the Western Provinces
No full textWhat impact do the tax systems of Canada’s Western provinces have on families’take-home pay and seniors’ pension income, and how does it compare to other provinces? This report answers the question by looking at marginal effective tax rates (METRs) on personal income, which measure the impact of federal and provincial income taxes combined with reductions and clawbacks of income-tested tax credits and benefits.Fiscal and Tax Competitiveness, marginal effective tax rates (METRs), Canada, Canadian western provinces
The Public-Sector Pension Bubble: Time to Confront the Unmeasured Cost of Ottawa's Pensions
No full textFair-value accounting reveals Ottawa’s employee pension obligations to be larger and more volatile than official figures, a problem shared by European and US state governments. This exposes taxpayers to an unmeasured $65 billion funding shortfall. To keep pace with benefit accruals and stop the gap from growing, contributions in the latest fiscal year would have had to be almost double what was actually paid in. Taxpayers risk finding that the responsibility to back-fill the funding hole falls to them – and potentially finding that fears of sovereign defaults by governments with opaque balance sheets and big exposure to public employee pensions will drive up the cost of borrowing.Pension Papers, fair-value accounting, Canadian public-sector pensions, defined-benefit (DB) plans
Camille Laurin et la politique comme psychothérapie
No full textCamille Laurin a toujours envisagé sa carrière politique comme une continuation de sa carrière psychiatrique. Les relations entre ces deux activités professionnelles restent pourtant floues parce que peu étudiées. En retraçant la généalogie de sa pensée psychiatrico-politique, depuis sa conception du Canada français comme une personnalité traumatique jusqu’à l’application de la loi 101 comme thérapeutique en passant par sa représentation du souverainisme comme soin, cet article entend clarifier les enjeux psychiatriques de l’engagement politique de Laurin et mettre en lumière sa conception de la politique comme une psychothérapie collective, mais peut-être aussi individuelle
Overnight Moves: The Bank of Canada Should Start to Raise Interest Rates Now
No full textWhen the Bank of Canada will begin raising interest rates is looking very different than when it should even though the risks of postponement are growing. If more “no-change” decisions are made by the Bank of Canada regarding its policy interest rate, inflation expectations might begin to slip loose of their 2 percent anchor. Further, with the Fed continuing to hold a near-zero rate, the US dollar is likely to continue its steady slide. If the Canadian dollar moves at least partially with the US dollar, because the Bank of Canada keeps its interest rate close to the federal funds rate, the higher inflation rates of energy and other commodity prices that are currently deemed temporary might start to look permanent.Monetary Policy, Bank of Canada, interest rates, inflation rate
What Has Happened to Quebecers’ Marginal Effective Tax Rates?
No full textMore than a decade after Quebec and the federal government implemented significant personal income tax rate reductions, what has happened to Quebecers’ take-home pay? This paper answers the question by looking at marginal effective tax rates (METRs) on personal income, which measure the impact of federal and provincial income taxes combined with the impact of reductions and clawbacks of income-tested tax credits and benefits. Income-tested credits and benefits mostly target financial support to low-to-middle income families with children and to low-income seniors. However, clawbacks and rate reductions apply to those credits and benefits as incomes rise above set thresholds, raising METRs for those income groups and family types. Overall, METRs are lower than a decade ago, but for many low-to-middle income Quebec families with children, they are higher. The province’s residents generally face the highest tax rates in the country, with an average METR in 2011 exceeding the national average by four percentage points.Fiscal and Tax Competitiveness, Province of Quebec, marginal effective tax rates (METRs)
Income Splitting for Two-Parent Families: Who Gains, Who Doesn't, and at What Cost?
No full textIn the 2011 Canadian federal election, the Conservative Party pledged to allow couples with minor children to split up to $50,000 of their incomes each year for tax purposes. Tax savings would arise to the extent that the spouses’ marginal tax rates differ. Advocates of splitting claim an inequity in tax burdens for one-earner couples versus two-earner couples and often invoke the image of the traditional family with mom at home minding the kids. This report provides a quantitative analysis of the economic impacts of the federal income splitting proposal including the effects if the provinces adopted a similar scheme.Fiscal and Tax Competitiveness, Canada, income splitting, tax savings, marginal tax rates
Back to Basics: Restoring Equity and Efficiency in the EI Program - EI Reform Part II
No full textRegionally based entry requirements and benefit durations prolong the persistence of unemployment and reduce economic incentives to adjust to labour-market conditions. Reforms aimed at equity are overdue. Regionally based criteria should be replaced by uniform, countrywide, employment insurance entrance requirements and benefit durations.employment insurance reform
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