Federal sickness benefit falls short of paid sick leave protections, advocates say

Michael Smart teaches economics at the University of Toronto and is co-director of the Finances of the Nation project.
Recent months have seen increased chatter about the idea of an annual “wealth tax” to help fund public services and make our tax system more progressive. The problem is that such a tax would have significant administrative costs and enforcement problems, and may well harm productivity.
These shortcomings of an explicit wealth tax don’t mean we should give up on

Household sector borrowing is divided into financing in the form of non-mortgage loans, or funds principally for consumption, and mortgage loans, or debt acquired to finance the purchase of a property. In November, household mortgage debt grew 7.4% year over year, while non-mortgage debt edged down 0.6%. Overall, mortgages represented a larger share of household credit debt, with mortgage growth pushing the total credit liabilities of households up to $2,452.9 billion.