Repeat after me, and loud enough for the old guys to hear: we are not in, and will not be in, a 1990s-style deficit-interest-debt spiral. We have other big problems to deal with. Get over your 1990s trauma, guys. x.com/kevinmilligan/…
Repeat after me, and loud enough for the old guys to hear: we are not in, and will not be in, a 1990s-style deficit-interest-debt spiral. We have other big problems to deal with. Get over your 1990s trauma, guys. x.com/kevinmilligan/…
trolling the haters with some more #fiscalfacts. Canada has lots of real problems to deal with. Don't invent fake fiscal ones.
Just read the housing chapter. There is a lot in there! You should likely start with @MikePMoffatt 's summary, as he has thought about federal housing policy a lot more than I have. x.com/mikepmoffatt/s…
Just read the housing chapter. There is a lot in there! You should likely start with @MikePMoffatt 's summary, as he has thought about federal housing policy a lot more than I have. x.com/mikepmoffatt/s…
Big picture on housing: ->a large number of innovative initiatives on supply side. Glad there's a lot of attention there. Build! ->Demand side is mixed. Stability on non-permanent residents + intl students is good. Tax incentives for new buyers are bad-it just juices prices.
A sampling of the supply-side measures: 1) build housing on existing federal land (eg. Canada Post; Defence) 2) Tax and other incentives for rental housing 3) supporting provincial initiatives 4) supporting pro-housing municipalities with $ 5) new Housing Infrastructure Fund.
Here's a nerdy one that makes sense and I like: providing a standardized catalogue that can be pre-approved so that you can build housing quickly.
For @BenRabidoux here are some tough words on income verification! Good stuff; just get it done.
Not sure on this one. I've heard that newly hired professors have been unable to buy a house because of this measure. I hope they've fixed that or figured it out, because it's hard enough for us to attract and retain academic talent.
Finally, always worth remembering that while the middle class (and the median voter) is important, so are those who are working hard to join it.....some real $$ assigned to homelessness and related initiatives. Good.
Good to see the Canada Disability Benefit taking shape. Years of consultation, advice, and advocacy underlying this. Benefit is up to $2400/year, keyed off eligibility for the Disability Tax Credit....
...this is a pretty big fudge though. Keying everything off the DTC is not great, since it outsources big social policy decisions to tax administrators. I love tax administrators, but I don't love them adjudicating disability.
@kevinmilligan It's the worst thing about the budget really. I'm heartbroken for all the disabled people that thought they had a chance to escape grueling poverty with the CDB. This is meaningless and a slap in the face to them.
@kevinmilligan Someone on ODSP in Ontario Canada(The same place as Ottawa) who is on ODSP gets $556/month for rent and $752/month for basic needs. Most are dipping into their basic needs to pay for housing. MPs get $2,300/month living expenses on top of their 6 figure salary. Tying it to the
@kevinmilligan Cruel, Evil stuff. Instead of being hard working tax payers, we should have been thieves like the Government.