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1. Morneau’s ‘Plan for Middle Class Progress’ cuts GDP by $131 billion

   Appeared in the Toronto Sun, November 2, 2016 On Tuesday, Federal Finance Minister Bill Morneau released his government’s Fall Economic Statement titled A Plan for Middle Class Progress. As noted in the release, “Finance Minister Bill Morneau announced ...

2. Federal deficits could total nearly $200 billion over next five years

   Appeared in the Financial Post, May 12, 2016 As the saying goes, a moving target is hard to hit. That is why repeated shifts in the federal government’s deficit and debt goals over the past six months have been so concerning. What started as a promise to ...

3. Moving Targets: Re-estimating Federal Deficits and Debt-to-GDP through 2020/21

   The federal government has repeatedly shifted the goal posts on its own “fiscal anchors.” This bulletin examines the robustness of the current “fiscal anchor” to reduce the debt-to-GDP ratio by the government’s first mandate. The 2016 federal budget ...

4. Liberal 2016 budget long on pro-growth rhetoric but short on economic action

   Appeared in Business in Vancouver, March 29, 2016 In his budget speech, rookie Finance Minister Bill Morneau went to great lengths to highlight that the Liberal government’s budget would improve the long-term growth prospects for the Canadian economy. His ...

5. End of the Chretien Consensus in Canada?

   Appeared in the Financial Post, November 24, 2015 Canada enjoyed an economic and fiscal renaissance starting in the mid-1990s that lasted more than a decade. The boom was rooted in sound fiscal policy (balanced budgets, focused spending, and tax ...

6. Conservatives’ economic vision for Canada is hardly conservative

   Appeared in the Financial Post As expected, the 2015 federal budget had the general feel of an election budget, with a small surplus and a smattering of initiatives to satisfy various voting groups. As Liberal leader Justin Trudeau noted in the House of ...

7. Is there any wonder why Ontario is in the state it's in?

   Appeared in the Financial Post As Ontario continues to undermine its economic future with growing debt, the province does not receive near the critical scrutiny it should from the media and financial markets. In reading CIBC World Markets’ latest Economic ...

8. Federal Liberals reject the party's successful pragmatism of the 1990s

   Appeared in the Ottawa Citizen, New Brunswick Telegraph Journal and Flin Flon Reminder The policy direction of the Liberal Party of Canada and its leader Justin Trudeau, as evidenced by the speeches, motions, and debate at the recent national party ...

9. BC's boring, balanced budget anything but

   Appeared in the Vancouver Sun Tuesday’s BC budget, which Finance Minister Michael de Jong called boring, balanced, should have set out an ambitious agenda for the next four years. After all, few governments embark on significant reform in the later years ...

10. Federal Government Failure in Canada, 2013 Edition: A review of the Auditor General's reports, 1988-2013

    The discussion of the limitations of government and subsequent government failure is wholly absent from debate in Canada where, unfortunately, we still assume that governments act benevolently and without institutional constraints. That this is not true ...