Government Spending

The Great Convergence: Measuring the Fiscal Capacity Gap Between “Have” and “Have-Not” Provinces is a new study that finds the gap between the ability of Canada’s richer and poorer provinces to raise revenues is shrinking rapidly. If Alberta’s fiscal capacity gap continues to shrink relative to the rest of Canada, the province could soon become eligible for equalization transfers, which would affect transfers to other so-called “have not” provinces.

The Distribution of the Canada Child Benefit by Family Type and Income Level, part three of an essay series on the Canada Child Benefit (CCB), finds that families with between $100,000 and $120,000 of annual household income received (on average) roughly the same increase in cash benefits from the new CCB program than families with less than $20,000 of income.