List of Positions

a complete list of all briefing notes that Policy Wiki collaborators have worked on

Positions on the Issues

Policy Note Guidelines

Briefing Notes and Positions: on policywiki, the term position is intended to be used and will replace ''breifing note" for clarity and to help lower the barriers to participation..

Remove briefing note from page names, leaving instead a simple verb phrase as a position title.
remove references to briefing note in the text, and replace with positions.

Positions on Immigration

Prevent Abuse of Foreign Student Program
Increase Language Training for Immigrants
Reforming the Immigration Point System
Changing the Family/Economic Balance

Positions on Climate Change

Note: Some of these briefing notes were prepared by students at the University of Toronto's School for Public Policy and Governance, under the direction of Mark Stabile

Fund Carbon Capture Technology
Improve Transport and Lower Congestion
Increase Subsidies for Renewable Energy
Require California Emissions Standards
Legislate Hard Targets for CO2 by 2020
Stimulus funding only for Green Infrastructure
Pollution not Climate Change is the Problem

Positions on Afghanistan

Note: The first four of these briefing notes were prepared by Nicola Fernandes, André Côté and Brittany Steif, students at the University of Toronto's School for Public Policy and Governance, under the direction of Mark Stabile (who wrote a background paper for our first Policy Wiki issue, the federal budget — Stabile Overview)

National Police Briefing Note
Taliban Negotiation Briefing Note
Kandahar Surge Briefing Note
Troop Removal Briefing Note
Canadian and International Goals Briefing Note
Regional Diplomacy Briefing Note

Budget Proposals

Budget briefing notes covers these 33 proposals in more depth - feel free to review, comment and edit where you can improve them. We thank the University of Toronto's School for Public Policy and Governance and Mark Stabile. Mark wrote the Stabile Overview for our first featured issue, the federal budget. He supervised Nicola Fernandes and André Côté in their preparation of the initial version of several briefing notes including one of the two sent to the Finance Minister (the Green Fund proposal below).

Physical Infrastructure Overhaul

Green Fund Briefing Note
Aboriginal Housing Briefing Note
Public Infrastructure Briefing Note
BPL and smart grid briefing note
Fibre To The Home Briefing Note
Electric Car Briefing Note
Management Consulting Briefing Note

Industry Stimulus and Support

__Supplemented Wage Increases — supplement to provincial minimum wages

Regional Recycling Mill Infrastructure Investment — recycle regionally.

Small Business Incentives — significant stimulus to small business investment

Amend the Small Business Loans Act — guarantee 90% of the principal.

Worker Retraining Loan/Grants — incentives to leave some jobs for retraining.

Auto Industry Support — Proposal: "While December’s C$4 billion in loans to GM and Chrysler will ensure their continued operation, the strategy will support their restructuring, protect displaced workers and affected communities, and reorient productive capacity to emerging industries." - from initial version by Nicola Fernandes and André Côté

Fractional Ownership of Farms for the Unemployed — help the unemployed farm

Allow Nortel to Survive — bail out Canada's only global player in telecoms equipment.

Tax and EI Reform

EI Reform — Proposal: "Budget 2009 must undertake significant reforms to the Employment Insurance (EI) program to both provide economic stimulus and ensure a cushion for displaced workers and families against the economic turmoil." - from initial version by Nicola Fernandes and André Côté

A Flat Tax — Proposal: "Canada currently employs a progressive tax rate structure for an individual’s personal income tax. Under the present structure, the higher the amount of income an individual earns, the greater the rate at which they are taxed. We need a new reform to income tax structure: a single rate- personal income tax. This may be part of a larger reform where an integrated flat tax would be uniformly applied to all types of income, personal and business, and income would only be taxed once. " - from initial version by Nicola Fernandes and André Côté

Increase the GST — Proposal: "Create a stimulus fund. Fund it with a 1% increase in the GST. People with jobs will not miss 1%, especially since they are actually better off these days with fuel prices down and deflationary factors coming into play."

A Harmonized Sales Tax — a 20% GST split 1/3 each by federal, provincial, municipal governments

GST Rebate for Charities — increase GST public sector rebate to 100%

Tax Exemption for Income Trusts — grandfather income trust tax treatment

RRSP Withdrawal — let taxpayers borrow against their RRSPs more easily

Monetising Tax Losses — restore casfhlow to spark further R&D
Senior Volunteerism Tax Credit — encourage social activity by seniors

Building Tax Deduction — make all home renovations tax deductible.

Private Infrastructure Stimulus — rebate all home improvement costs

Preventing Speculative Bubbles — regulate derivatives and all speculation

Consumer Spending Vouchers — all taxpayers given $1000 back to spend.

Social Services Upgrades

A Consumer Credit Proposal — limit interest rates on credit cards to 10%

Internet Use for Socio-economic Development — help all Canadians benefit from the Internet.

Child Nutrition Program — $110 million for First Nations and rural schools, plus up to $337.5M matching to provinces/cities.

Funding the Stimulus

Green Premium Bonds — guaranteed investment with windfall upside

Inflation Protected Stimulus Bonds ? — fund stimulus with bonds at 4% for 20 years.

See Budget Briefing Notes for a full paragraph overview of each and every one of the above 33 proposals. A one-line summary may not do them justice.

Contributors to this page: mingram , auser , BobM , sitehelper , BlaneGrann , lmt , Neil_Kitson , schmuryk , Craig_Hubley , glanca , jefferyb@istar.ca , Garthtg , macshir12 , Lorne , tomwatson , Wynton , Bill , derekhill , bryland , Geoff_Devereux , MarkTilley , bmcleish , antitheory , apater , Joel , Andrew , mjcole , mrthor , william1 , arthur , newuser and Robertson .
Page last modified on Sunday 10 of May, 2009 23:03:53 EDT.

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