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1. Canada’s climate policy mess is hardly ‘cost-effective’

   In another example of carbon-pricing confusion, the C.D. Howe Institute recently published a report, which describes the federal carbon-pricing plan as “cost-effective”—while at the same time, noting evidence that the overall policy mix ...

2. Federal government’s carbon-pricing system violates basic tenets of efficient carbon pricing

   In a highly anticipated announcement, the federal government today revealed details of its carbon-pricing system, which will impose a federal carbon tax on provinces that have chosen to forego a provincial policy. The system violates ...

3. Most middle-class Canadians have seen their income taxes increase, not decrease

   In a recent Globe and Mail commentary ("Crazy rich Canadians: How to tax the 1%"), noted economist Jack Mintz said “Canada is now disadvantaged in attracting entrepreneurial and skilled labour because of its higher personal tax ...

4. Equalization isn’t meant to help with economic downturns

   A lot of recent discussion about equalization —which may be moot since the program has just been renewed for five years—has focused on how it hasn’t helped Alberta through its recent difficult patch and also hasn’t helped other regions ...

5. Former chief of staff’s new book is bravely contrarian

   I responded to the stifling heat that descended on Central Canada this week by descending to the relative cool of my basement, tuning in the World Cup Round of 16, and, because soccer isn’t a game that requires undivided attention, ...

6. Morneau's Trans Mountain pipeline promise creates a dangerous precedent

   After weeks of anticipation, federal Finance Minister Bill Morneau (pictured above) today announced that—in light of the uncertainty over the $7.4 billion Trans Mountain pipeline expansion project—the federal government will compensate ...

7. State of federal finances worse than previously thought

   The latest federal budget showed that public finances are in poor shape and Ottawa is ill-prepared for a possible economic recession. But a recent Parliamentary Budget Office report suggests the situation may be worse than the government ...

8. Shrinking U.S. trade deficit likely bad news for U.S. trading partners

   Ordinarily, official announcements of the monthly U.S. trade deficit get minimal attention from the media. Not so for the recent announcement by the U.S. Commerce Department of the March 2018 U.S. trade deficit. Numerous media reports ...

9. Canadian household debt concerns are overblown

   Once again, alarms are sounding about the level of household debt in Canada. A recent Financial Post story highlighted reports by both Equifax Canada and the Swiss-based Bank of International Settlements (BIS) about the growing household ...

10. 35-stop shopping—coming soon to a government near you

    If more innovation programs were all we needed to solve our innovation problems, they would have been solved a long time ago. ...