Modern concerns about poverty and income redistribution often involve proposals for a Basic Income or a Guaranteed Annual Income. A Basic Income (BI) would provide a specific benefit amount to every citizen which is subject to tax. It has garnered considerable international support through the Basic Income Earth Network (BIEN). The Guaranteed Annual Income (GAI) […]
Public discussion of Alberta’s new NDP government has focussed on its economic agenda items, such as the $15/hour minimum wage and the resource royalty review, but Premier Notley will also be looking at some important changes to the political system. Excuse me for being cynical, but in 50 years of studying politics I have seen […]
As a specialist in the regulation of financial institutions it’s challenging to come up with a short blog entry that will be of interest to the average visitor to our web page. However, the number one news story these days is the Mike Duffy trial. Suppose we take a look at that situation in the […]
In the U.S., Congress passed the Dodd Frank Act in 2010 to implement resource payment transparency. Section 1504 of that legislation required the SEC to make rules describing the specific mechanics for compliance. Interestingly, these rules only apply to public companies under the jurisdiction of the SEC. Private resource companies in the U.S. are therefore […]
Canada –India Entente in the 21st Century In the 21st century, very little has changed over the last six centuries with regard to India’s relationship with the world. Columbus was on a quest to find a better route and discover commercial opportunities in India and, in the same vein, developed countries across the globe are […]
The original EITI (Extractive Industries Transparency Initiative) model called for a company to report on a project by project, company by company basis, with no exemptions. The rationale was that this would help civil societies talk directly with local government about local projects and will allow such oversight actors to carry out more accurate analyses […]
Brian Livingston is an Executive Fellow at The School of Public Policy, with a background in the resource area. In November of 2014, the Government of Canada passed legislation requiring resource entities (usually corporations) in Canada to publish the payments they make to various governments in the world. This blog will examine the key […]
The main purpose of taxation is to finance public spending. Tax systems can also be used to achieve a variety of economic, social and environmental objectives. One of the main results in economic theory is that incentives matter in affecting economic performance and taxation has a major impact on incentives by causing a divergence between […]
Most people don’t think about energy until it isn’t there when they need it. Just imagine one million people without power to their TVs during last night’s airing of The Walking Dead? Many would be outraged, but- what about the rest of the time? Where, when and how do we talk about energy in Canada, […]