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1. Trudeau government should target high tax rates during COVID recovery and beyond

   Appeared in the Vancouver Province, July 8, 2020 Due largely to COVID-19, Canada now faces a steep recession. A recent RBC forecast estimates the economy will contract by 7.1 per cent this year. Government policies will help determine the pace of recovery ...

2. COVID-19 isn’t the only reason for our mega-deficit

   Appeared in the Financial Post, July 8, 2020 Today, the Trudeau government presents a “snapshot” of federal finances that’s likely to blame this year’s historic federal deficit on COVID-19 and the recession. But that’s only part of the story. The federal ...

3. Is Fiscal Stimulus an Effective Policy Response to a Recession? Reviewing the Existing Research

   This report examines existing academic studies that analyze evidence regarding the effectiveness of fiscal stimulus—additional government spending and/or tax relief—as a mechanism to mitigate the impact of a recession and speed up economic ...

4. 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 ...

5. Revisions to ‘wage subsidy’ program leave many questions unanswered

   In what seems like a constant evolution of responses to the COVID-19 health and economic crisis, the federal government on Wednesday—April Fool’s no less—attempted to clarify the expanded wage subsidy program announced by the prime ...

6. Ottawa’s ‘Emergency Response Benefit’ leaves many unanswered questions

   This week, Parliament passed legislation giving sweeping powers to Finance Minister Bill Morneau, including the power to unilaterally spend and borrow without parliamentary approval until September 2020. While the Liberals agreed to ...