Coady Institute and the NS Federation of Labour will hold a town hall webinar meeting on taxation
The Coady Institute and the Nova Scotia Federation of Labour are renewing their partnership for the Topshee Memorial Webinar Series. This year’s first webinar, Fair Taxes, Affordable Futures, will take place March 20, from 7 to 8 pm AT.
Well-known Economist Lars Osberg from Dalhousie University and Katrina Miller, the Executive Director of Canadians for Tax Fairness, will discuss fixing our tax system and where those tax dollars must go to help our communities most. Coady teaching staff member Pauline MacIntosh will moderate the town hall discussion.
Lars is the McCulloch Professor of Economics at Dalhousie University, Halifax. He has had visiting positions at numerous international universities, the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD), Paris, and The Institute for New Economic Thinking, Oxford. He is the author of several books and textbooks on economics, including The Age of Increasing Inequality: The Astonishing Rise of Canada’s 1%, which was awarded the Doug Purvis Memorial Prize. He was President of the Canadian Economics Association from 1999 to 2000 and was appointed a Fellow in June 2020. Lars is a board member of the Canadians for Tax Fairness.
Katrina is the Executive Director of Canadians for Tax Fairness. She has worked for more than 20 years to win environmental, social, and economic justice at every level of government. She has collaborated with various labour, community, and academic experts to develop and campaign for policies that make a difference in people’s lives, helping organizations build and hone their strategies for change.
The Topshee Memorial Program honours the legacy of the Rev. George Topshee, former director of the StFX Extension Department and the Coady International Institute. It provides a space to connect with Labour in Atlantic Canada. During his 25 years with StFX Extension, Topshee established himself and the Department as close friends and allies of organized labour. Topshee was a “Movement” person and saw workers in their trade unions and consumers and producers in their co-operatives and credit unions as part of the exact cause for social justice and economic democracy. The death of Topshee in 1984 prompted leaders in the Labour Movement in Atlantic Canada to initiate the Topshee Memorial Fund, named in his honour. They designated the fund to support annual conferences dealing with pressing social and economic issues that confront the people of Atlantic Canada. These conferences provided a forum where people from all walks of life could meet to discuss critical social and economic issues affecting life in Atlantic Canada.
In recent years, webinars have been adopted to provide a space for discussion and learning. Beginning in 2021, the Nova Scotia Federation of Labour, St. Francis Xavier University Extension Department, and Coady International Institute, now Coady Institute, launched the Topshee Memorial Webinar to continue the Topshee dialogue tradition within the context of today’s society.
