Multicultural Organizational Development: A Resource for Health Equity

Discusses ways to develop the multicultural capacity of health organizations, based on theories from the behavioral sciences that have been applied to organizational management

Poverty, Disability and Social Exclusion: New Strategies for Achieving Inclusive Development

[Excerpt] Despite international investments in development initiatives targeted to people who have a disability – investments by domestic governments in support to people who have a disability and commitments by governments to international and domestic human rights commitments – little if any progress has been made in improving the economic, political or social status of people who have a disability in developing countries. To understand why people with disabilities continue to be among the most disadvantaged people in the world we must consider how people with disabilities are perceived by policy makers and how development policy addresses disability. If real progress is to be made in achieving better lives for people with disabilities both the perception of people with disabilities and our policy objectives must change. This paper outlines the need for a shift from disability policy to inclusive development policy and proposes that civil society organizations require expanded strategies to contribute to this shift. The global strategy developed by Inclusion International to promote the inclusion of people with intellectual disabilities and their families in the UN Millennium Development Goals illustrates what this shift means for an international disability organization and demonstrates how we can “link local voices to global change”

A Balancing Act: Making the Canadian Secured Credit Facility Work

The January 2009 federal budget proposed funding a “Canadian Secured Credit Facility” as part of an economic action plan. This Facility will allocate up to $12 billion to purchases of term asset-backed securities (ABS) for loans and leases on vehicles and equipment. The Facility will be managed by the Business Development Bank of Canada (BDC), which has since conducted consultations on the proposal.Canadian federal budget, Business Development Bank of Canada, asset-backed securities, financial liquidity

Cleaning Up the Books: A Proposal for Revamping Corporate Group Taxation in Canada

Providing a comprehensive group-taxation regime would bring fairness, simplicity and certainty of tax outcome for Canadian corporations. Canada’s current approach leads to higher administrative and transaction costs, unfairness among different types of corporations, uncertainty, and weakened international competitiveness.Canadian corporate taxation, competitiveness of corporate tax system

A Continuous Beam Steering Slotted Waveguide Antenna Using Rotating Dielectric Slabs

The design, simulation and measurement of a beam steerable slotted waveguide antenna operating in X band are presented. The proposed beam steerable antenna consists of a standard rectangular waveguide (RWG) section with longitudinal slots in the broad wall. The beam steering in this configuration is achieved by rotating two dielectric slabs inside the waveguide and consequently changing the phase of the slots excitations. In order to confirm the usefulness of this concept, a non-resonant 20-slot waveguide array antenna with an element spacing of d = 0.58{\lambda}0 has been designed, built and measured. A 14 deg beam scanning from near broadside ({\theta} = 4 deg) toward end-fire ({\theta} = 18 deg) direction is observed. The gain varies from 18.33 dB to 19.11 dB which corresponds to the radiation efficiencies between 95% and 79%. The side-lobe level is -14 dB at the design frequency of 9.35 GHz. The simulated co-polarized realized gain closely matches the fabricated prototype patterns

What's My METR? Marginal Effective Tax Rates Are Down - But Not for Everyone: The Ontario Case

The marginal effective tax rate (METR) on personal income, explain the authors, measures the impact, on take-home pay, of federal and provincial income taxes combined with the impact of reductions and clawbacks of income-tested tax credits and benefits as individual or family income rises. These income-tested credits and benefits mostly target financial support to low- and middle-income families with children, or to low-income seniors. As their income rises past prescribed thresholds, clawbacks and reductions begin, raising the METR on each dollar of incremental income above the threshold. Policymakers interested in keeping down METRs overall, say the authors, should consider reinvigorating the personal income tax relief imperative, rather than implementing or expanding targeted benefits that make general tax relief more difficult to achieve.Fiscal and Tax Competitiveness, marginal effective tax rate (METR), Province of Ontario

Saver's Choice: Comparing the Marginal Effective Tax Burdens on RRSPs and TFSAs

Canada’s graduated personal income tax leads most taxpayers to expect higher tax rates when they are working than when they are living on lower incomes from their retirement savings. Yet for many people, marginal effective tax rates on income from retirement savings are higher than those they face during working life. Comparing marginal effective tax rates across income levels suggests that many Canadians with savings in tax-deferred vehicles, like Registered Retirement Savings Plans, should put more future saving in tax-prepaid savings plans, particularly Tax Free Savings Accounts.Pension Papers, Registered Retirement Savings Plans (RRSPs), Tax Free Savings Accounts (TFSAs), marginal effective tax rates (METRs)

Western METRics: Marginal Effective Tax Rates in the Western Provinces

What impact do the tax systems of Canada’s Western provinces have on families’take-home pay and seniors’ pension income, and how does it compare to other provinces? This report answers the question by looking at marginal effective tax rates (METRs) on personal income, which measure the impact of federal and provincial income taxes combined with reductions and clawbacks of income-tested tax credits and benefits.Fiscal and Tax Competitiveness, marginal effective tax rates (METRs), Canada, Canadian western provinces

The Time is Still Right for BC’s HST

British Columbia is on the right track with its controversial move to a harmonized sales tax (HST), according to this report. The authors say the shift to a value-added tax mirrors patterns in most of the developed world, and helped move the province from being a high tax, investment-unfriendly jurisdiction, to one which is domestically and internationally competitive – a more attractive home for investment and jobs. Consumption taxes like the HST in BC impose smaller burdens on the economy, per dollar of government revenue, than alternatives such as old-style retail sales taxes or taxes on personal and business incomes. For this and other reasons, conclude the authors, BC residents are well served by the new HST.Fiscal and Tax Competitiveness, British Columbia (Province), harmonized sales tax (HST)