Media
We Teach Ontario: Lisa Philipps
http://www.weteachontario.ca "I Teach Fairness" Most people hear the word "tax" and cringe. When Lisa Philipps hears it, she sees an opportunity to make public policy in Canada work better. Lisa researches tax policy in Canada, and looks at ways that our tax system can promote opportunity for women, people with disabilities, and not-for-profit organizations, to name just a few. She also looks at how certain kinds of tax credits and benefits only benefit the wealthy. Together with her students, she is working to make sure our tax system in fair for everyone. Lisa brings her research into the classroom to show students how Canadian tax policy is a dynamic and engaging area of study—rather than just something that happens every April 30th. This is a task for both an outstanding researcher and teacher. Lisa has this covered; she won an Osgoode Hall Teaching Excellence Award in 2005, and is currently serving as York University's Associate Vice President of Research.
York Circle - Why are Canadians ranting and raving about income splitting?
Income splitting has moved from the arcane corners of tax planning into the bright light of the public square. Controversy over the “Family Tax Cut” will be pivotal to the 2015 federal budget debate and the election to follow. Osgoode professor Lisa Philipps is an award winning teacher who believes in demystifying tax laws and the fundamental choices that inform them. In this lecture, Philipps goes behind the dollars to look at why income splitting has become a flashpoint for debate about inequalities within and between families.
Research Byte: Income Splitting
Lisa Philipps, Associate Vice-President Research at York University and Professor at Osgoode Hall Law School, debates about income splitting, tax policy, inequality and the family
Ontario the indebted
TVO's The Agenda with Steve Paikin, September 21, 2017Television
URL: http://tvo.org/video/programs/the-agenda-with-steve-paikin/ontario-the-indebted
CBC Radio, February 27, 2015Radio/Podcast
URL: http://www.cbc.ca/player/play/2656233783
An interview with Jim Brown on "The 180".
The Best Way to Improve Access to Post-Secondary Education Isn't Through Tax Policy
Op-ed: The downsides of post-secondary co-op work placements
Globe and Mail, October 27, 2016Print
Op-ed co-written with Joseph Turcotte and Leslie Nichols. "Canadian higher education is entering a new age of “work-integrated” learning. More and more students are seeking a co-op placements, internships or other hands-on work experience as part of their postsecondary program."
Op-ed: The principal-residence exemption is a fixable piece of the housing puzzle
Globe and Mail, September 12, 2016Print
There is no one simple strategy, no silver bullet, to make houses more affordable in some of Canada’s overheated markets. The problem has multiple causes, including ultralow interest rates, low supplies of housing for rent or purchase, and speculation.
Why A Balanced Budget Law Could Mean More Debt For Consumers
Huffington Post, April 13, 2015Online
URL: http://www.huffingtonpost.ca/2015/04/13/balanced-budget-law-canada-consumer-debt_n_7043558.html
Reining in government spending during times of slow growth could actually worsen a bad situation, while easing monetary policy allows more Canadians to add to their growing debt loads, said Lisa Philipps, professor of taxation law and fiscal policy at Osgoode Hall Law School. “Once they commit themselves to a balanced budget they inhibit themselves from doing what is economically sensible to shorten a period of economic weakness rather than worsen it,” she said...
Osgoode Professor Lisa Philipps appointed Interim Dean of Lakehead University’s Bora Laskin Faculty of Law
York University, July 1, 2015Online
Professor Lisa Philipps will serve as Interim Dean at Lakehead University’s Bora Laskin Faculty of Law from July 1 to December 31, 2015, Osgoode Dean Lorne Sossin said in a message to the Osgoode community on June 26. Philipps will be on a leave of absence from Osgoode during this period and will return in January 2016.“I know you will join me in congratulating Lisa on taking up this important role – and I have no doubt Lakehead’s law school will thrive during this period under her leadership,” Sossin said.
Norton Rose donation to aid disadvantaged students
Canadian Lawyer Magazine, October 26, 2015Online
URL: http://www.canadianlawyermag.com/5795/Norton-Rose-Donation-to-aid-disadvantaged-students.html
“We are so thrilled, it is quite historic, in the sense of the scale of the gift,” says Lisa Philipps, interim dean at Bora Laskin Faculty of Law in Thunder Bay...
Five reasons to stop obsessing about balanced budget
The Globe and Mail, April 9, 2015Online
As the 2015 government budget season rolls out across the country, what should Canadians really be watching for? So far the bottom line is hogging too much of the attention...
The Rise of Balanced Budget Laws in Canada: Legislating Fiscal (Ir) responsibility
Published by Osgoode Hall Law Journal
1996 Fiscal restraint and deficit reduction have become virtual mantras for all levels of Canadian government in the 1990s, regardless of geographic or political affiliation. An attitude of skepticism toward government spending, borrowing, and taxing has established ...
URL: http://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=1576935
There's only one worker: Toward the legal integration of paid employment and unpaid caregiving
Published by New Perspectives on the Public-Private Divide
2003 The object of this essay is to imagine how law might look if it took seriously the idea that unpaid caregiving is an economic activity, a work process that generates human capacities without which markets could not function. Instead of warm, fuzzy statements about how ...
Tax law and social reproduction: the gender of fiscal policy in an age of privatization
Published by Privatization, Law and the Challenge to Feminism
2002 The drive towards privatization in Canada has at its heart one central claim: that private choice is better than public regulation as a mechanism for allocating resources and ordering social affairs. The main job of the state, according to neo-liberal wisdom, is just to get out ...
Silent partners: The role of unpaid market labor in families
Published by Feminist Economics
2008 The term “unpaid market labor” refers to the direct contributions of unpaid family members to market work that officially belongs to another member of the household. Thus one individual may be construed legally as an owner or entrepreneur, but relatives may ...
URL: http://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/13545700701880981
Fiscal Transparency: Global Norms, Domestic Laws, and the Politics of Budgets
Published by Brook Journal of International Law
2008 Since the early 1990s, the issue of fiscal transparency has attracted increasing attention from international institutions, governments, and nongovernment actors concerned with budgets and fiscal policy reform. The Organisation for Economic Co-operation and ...
URL: http://heinonlinebackup.com/hol-cgi-bin/get_pdf.cgi?handle=hein.journals/bjil34§ion=31
Biography
Professor Lisa Philipps teaches and writes about taxation law and fiscal policy. She is known for incisive expert commentary on budgets, taxes, law, gender and social policy, and higher education policy. On faculty at Osgoode Hall Law School since 1996, Philipps has published widely on topics such as registered savings plans, tax expenditures, income splitting and family taxation, balanced budget laws, judicial approaches to tax law, taxes and disability, and charitable donation tax incentives. In her scholarship and in the classroom, she explores the basic values and policy choices at play in designing a fair and efficient tax system. Philipps has provided commissioned research and advice to a number of bodies. In 2015 she was appointed as Special Counsel to Ontario’s Ministry of Finance. She practised tax law with the firm of Blake, Cassels & Graydon prior to embarking on her academic career, and taught at the Universities of Victoria and British Columbia before joining York University. She has held a number of leadership roles at the Law School and University levels, most recently as Interim Vice-President Academic & Provost at York University (2017-18) and Interim Dean of the Bora Laskin Faculty of Law at Lakehead University (fall 2015). An active volunteer, she has served as Director of Research Policy on the Board of the Federation for the Humanities and Social Sciences, a national non-profit organization. She is also appointed as a member of the Provincial Judges Pension Board.Professor Philipps received her LLB from the University of Toronto and her LLM from York University. Philipps was called to the Bar of Ontario in 1988.
Recognition/Reconnaissance
Bar | Professional
Called to the Bar of Ontario, 1988