Parliamentary Budget Officer releases report on Budget 2021
The
Parliamentary Budget Officer (PBO), which supports Parliament by providing independent analysis of the nation’s finances, published
its report on the federal budget. According to the PBO, while “almost all of the ground lost in the labour market due to the pandemic will be made up by the end of 2021-22… Budget 2021 estimates overstate the impact of stimulus spending over the next 3 years.”
International Energy Association publishes net-zero roadmap
The International Energy Association (IEA), an intergovernmental organization that focuses on energy, recently published
Net Zero by 2050, a roadmap for the global energy sector. According to the report, to reach net zero emissions by 2050, global investment in clean energy will need to more than triple by 2030—to around $4 trillion per year. Global investment in new fossil fuel supply projects would have to cease entirely, while existing projects would need to become greener.
Suncor and ATCO interested in pursuing new hydrogen facility in Alberta
Suncor Energy and ATCO
announced last week that they are interested in building a hydrogen facility in the Edmonton area, but would require government support to do so. According to the companies, the project could produce more than 300,000 tonnes of hydrogen annually and “would reduce CO2 emissions in Alberta by more than two million tonnes per year, equivalent to taking 450,000 cars per year off the road.
Budget 2021 border levy seeks to mitigate “carbon leakage”
Included in the recent federal budget is a newly proposed “border adjustment” for carbon-intensive goods. The proposed adjustment is designed to mitigate “
carbon leakage,” which happens when carbon-dense goods are imported into Canada from other parts of the world that have weaker climate regulations. Similar measures have been proposed in other parts of the world, such as the
European Union.
US government shifts position on international tax system
The US government has
dramatically shifted its position on the taxation of multinational companies globally. A recent document sent by the US to 135 countries at the OECD outlines the United States’ new preferred approach: have multinational companies pay taxes in each country based on the sales they generate in that country, and establish a minimum tax rate on company profits across the OECD.
International negotiations on these topics will continue at the OECD over the summer. To date, global responses to the proposals have been mixed.
Some economists estimate that tax planning by
big tech and other large multinationals is equal to US $427 billion in lost tax revenues annually. -
Mairead Matthews