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1. Interest on federal debt—a growing problem

   Interest payments on the federal debt are expected to equal $20.2 billion in 2020/21. ...

2. The evolution of federal debt interest costs in Canada

   The federal government has seemingly ditched the debt-averse approach that largely prevailed in Ottawa since the mid-1980s. ...

3. Trudeau government poised to embrace much more federal debt

   Starting in the mid-1980s, Canada’s federal fiscal policy focused heavily on trying to limit the accumulation of debt and push down (or at least prevent) growth in Ottawa’s debt-to-GDP ratio. To achieve this objective, successive ...

4. Ontarians—today and in the future—will pay the price for Ottawa’s debt

   At the end of fiscal year 2019, Ontario’s provincial government debt stood at $355 billion. For context, that’s more than $24,000 per Ontarian. With the COVID recession, this debt will grow further. Scotiabank Economics estimates a $36 ...

5. Salaries and benefits often account for more than half of all provincial government spending

   Even before the recession, the federal government and several provinces were facing significant budget deficits. Now due to COVID-19, the estimated federal deficit will eclipse $250 billion this year while the provincial deficits combined ...

6. Alberta’s economic health remains a matter of national importance

   It’s well known that Ottawa has run substantial budget deficits in recent years. The federal deficit weighed in at approximately $19 billion in both 2016/17 and 2017/18. But what’s perhaps less understood, however, is that those deficits ...

7. Canada’s Past Fiscal Leaders Are Now Fiscal Laggards: An Analysis of 2017 Provincial Budgets

   Around the turn of the 21st century, Alberta and Ontario could both boast of having comparatively sound public finances relative to most other provinces. In recent years, however, serious fiscal problems have emerged in both provinces. Alberta and Ontario ...

8. Another broken promise—federal government ditches latest fiscal pledge

   By 2019/20, Canada’s debt-to-GDP ratio is forecasted to be 31.5 per cent. ...

9. Federal finances and the irony behind Ottawa’s new ‘stress test’

   Appeared in the Financial Post, October 18, 2016 Ottawa recently announced a series of new regulations for the housing market to “protect the long-term financial security of borrowers and all Canadians.” You have to love the irony. While the federal ...

10. Moving targets, routine deficits, and Canada’s short-lived federal ‘fiscal anchor’

    Appeared in the Financial Post, February 25, 2016 During last fall’s federal election, the Liberals campaigned on a commitment to run budget deficits for its first three years, while promising that the size of those deficits would be capped at $10 billion ...