Ontario Office

Over on our blog, Behind the Numbers, CCPA Research Associates are sharing their analyses of the Ontario budget:

• Hugh Mackenzie shares his devastating critique of the budget, suggesting that Premier Dalton McGuinty’s ninth Ontario budget completes the job of cutting government down to size—a job started by the Mike Harris Conservatives in the 1990s. Read the full post: Completing the job started by Mike Harris. 
• Erin Weir shares his analysis of the budget in the blog post, Drummond Commission report: countering cutbacks in Ontario. He suggests that the most striking feature of the budget might be how close it comes to last month’s Drummond report. Read more here.

In his new report, Ontario's Fiscal Reality: Glass Half Empty or Half Full?, economist Hugh Mackenzie takes a critical look at the assumptions that drive the Drummond report's claim that Ontario is in a fiscal crisis that can only be resolved through unprecedented austerity. He finds that the predicted fiscal crisis is driven not by lower-than-normal economic growth, as Drummond and the government assert, but by a series of unusual assumptions carefully selected to inflate the deficit, and that using more normal and reasonable assumptions, the deficit turns out to be a problem that can be resolved without austerity budget cuts. In his report, Mackenzie writes: "The province is recovering, more slowly than anyone would wish, from the worst recession to hit the world economy since the 1930s. It is coming to terms – along with much of the rest of the developed world – with the likelihood that in the future the economy will grow more slowly than it did in the past. It is finally having to deal with the cumulative impact on Ontario's fiscal capacity of nearly two decades of unaffordable tax cuts. But Ontario is not in a fiscal crisis." Read the full report here.

Economist Jim Stanford also recently presented his analysis of Ontario's fiscal reality. Watch a video of his presentation here.

The Ontario budget will be tabled on March 27, 2012.

In response to the February 15 Commission on the Reform of Ontario's Public Services report – widely referred to as the Drummond report after its author, retired banker Don Drummond – the Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives hosted a public meeting, entitled Deconstructing Drummond, in Toronto to examine the 362 recommendations within the report.

The event drew a packed house, with an audience representing the full spectrum of civil society – all concerned about the harmful effects an austerity agenda could have on the economy and on the people of Ontario.

CCPA Research Associates – economists Hugh Mackenzie and Jim Stanford – presented their analysis of the report's fiscal and economic projections.

In his presentation, Hugh Mackenzie talked about how the debate is being manipulated to trump up a sense of economic crisis when there are revenue and other fiscal options to manage a deficit reduction program that follows a more sensible path. View the slides from his presentation below:

Drummond: The deficit zombies Walk the streets of our town

In the wake of the Drummond report on reforming Ontario's public services—which includes 362 recommended reforms to balance the books by 2018—CCPA Research Associates share their analyses:

• In Debunking Drummond, Erin Weir writes about how more realistic revenue projections and policies to bolster revenue would reduce the pressure for austerity. 
• In Drummond, Deconstructed, Karen Foster questions the gospel according to Drummond—and asks if the report is really our best and only option.
• Erin Weir posts a response to The Harvard International Review's interview with Don Drummond: Drummond Misdiagnoses Ontario’s Economy.
• Erin Weir questions the assumption underlying the Drummond Commission’s gloomy fiscal picture in his blog post, Deflating Drummond.
• In Drummond: The Good, The Bad and The Ugly, Erin Weir breaks down the Drummond report and shares his advice on how the Ontario government can (and should) move forward.
• Jim Stanford gives us ten macroeconomic factoids to keep in mind as we counter the overarching claim that Ontario just can’t afford our already-stretched network of public services: Ten Points on Recession, Deficits, and Austerity in Ontario.

Electro-Motive/Caterpillar's decision to lock out its London, Ontario workers on January 1st, demanding workers accept a 50% pay cut or lose the plant altogether, brings into focus a theme that is unfolding in 2012: The crackdown on middle class work in Canada.

The CCPA's Trish Hennessy has written two blog posts about the developments in London and what it means for Canada's labour movement:

Caterpillar: The moth flying too close to the flame shows the futility of Canada's tax cut agenda and the failure of senior governments to act to save jobs.

Attack of the killer unionbot deconstructs the dehumanizing narrative that is pitting Canadians against unions.

As the City of Toronto considers a budget proposal that would result in drastic public sector job cuts, economist Hugh Mackenzie weighs in with a sobering observation: between October 2010 and October 2011, the entire Toronto Census Metropolitan Area lost 8,500 jobs. Mayor Rob Ford's intent to eliminate 2,300 public sector jobs in one year could make things dramatically worse for Toronto's post-recession recovery efforts.

Read Hugh Mackenzie's full blog post, Political Paralysis and Disaster Budgeting: Lessons from Toronto.

On November 3rd, the Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives proudly hosted the 2011 David Lewis Lecture in Toronto. This year’s lecture featured an intimate conversation between two of Canada’s leading thinkers and recipients of the Order of Canada - Stephen Lewis and Michele Landsberg.

Hundreds of guests joined us for this sold-out event, which was generously sponsored by the Trinity-St. Paul's Centre for Faith, Justice and the Arts and the Ontario Public Service Employees Union (OPSEU). All proceeds from the event are dedicated to future CCPA David Lewis Lectures.

In case you weren't able to join us this year, you can watch the full lecture here.