Taxes as Instruments of Public Policy

Randall White is the author of Voice of Region: On the Long Journey to
Senate Reform in Canada and Too Good to Be True: Toronto in the 1920s.

In this fourth report of Ontario’s Fair Tax Commission, Mark
Sproule-Jones surveys recent experience with user fees without great
enthusiasm, but allows that there is some qualified degree of potential
for expanding their use in Ontario; Morley Gunderson and Wayne Thursk
explore the current tax treatment of “human capital,” and conclude
that “there is some merit in considering introduction of a training
tax credit for employers”; Arthur Donner and Fred Lazar examine the
economic effects of an environment tax, cautioning “against unilateral
introduction of a carbon or energy tax, and especially against relying
solely on either one to stabilize emissions”; and Sheila Block and
Allan Maslove briefly discuss and document current “tax
expenditures” in Ontario.

Despite much recent popular controversy that might seem related to the
title of the book, perhaps inevitably there is not much here to engage a
more general reader. As in other such cases, the volume will be of
primary interest to students and scholars of tax policy, and to
government bureaucrats directly concerned with the subjects discussed.