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1. New COVID spending may do more harm than good

   Several businesses, particularly in the service industry, are struggling to find workers. ...

2. Canada lags behind most industrialized countries on key economic, fiscal indicators

   Appeared in the Financial Post, November 4, 2020 The Trudeau government has generally favoured relative comparisons of its performance (i.e. how we rate versus other countries) rather than historical comparisons. Recent data from the International ...

3. Post-COVID recovery should encourage growth of private sector in Canada

   Appeared in the Calgary Sun, October 28, 2020 All developed economies, including Canada, face economic restructuring challenges post-COVID. Labour and capital must be reallocated across industrial sectors and locations, new investments must be made in ...

4. Trudeau government should heed looming risks to federal finances

   Appeared in the Globe and Mail, October 23, 2020 The federal government along with several prominent economists have downplayed the near-term risks to federal finances. Some have actually characterized Ottawa’s financial position as basically “ sound.” ...

5. Prime Ministers and Government Spending: Updated 2020 Edition

   This essay updates the previous 2020 measure of per-person program spending by prime ministers, adjusting for inflation, since 1870. This essay focuses on the potential level of spending in 2020 based on the government’s response to the COVID ...

6. Pandemics, social upheaval and government spending

   Federal deficit estimates range from $100 billion to $200 billion for fiscal year 2020-21. ...

7. Trudeau government gets unlimited spending authority for six months

   Appeared in the Toronto Sun, March 26, 2020 On Wednesday, the government passed legislation (which the Opposition members either supported or acquiesced to) giving sweeping powers to Finance Minister Bill Morneau, including the power to unilaterally spend ...