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1. Beware experts bearing consensus

   Despite economic, climate and health models often being wildly inaccurate and unreliable, they are increasingly relied upon for policymaking. ...

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. 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.” ...

4. Trudeau government spending billions to make people better off than before recession

   Appeared in the Vancouver Province, September 8, 2020 We recently analyzed almost $82 billion in COVID-related spending—specifically CERB, the student assistance benefit (CESB), and one-time payments linked to Old Age Security (OAS), the Guaranteed Income ...

5. Federal Government Wasting Billions on Poorly Targeted Assistance

   The federal government has introduced a number of new programs and ad hoc additions to existing programs in response to the COVID recession. Unfortunately, much of this spending appears to have been poorly targeted towards those in genuine need, ...

6. Distribution of CERB: Estimating the Number of Eligible Young People Living with Parents

   The Canada Emergency Response Benefit (CERB) is a flat, taxable $2,000 monthly benefit provided to eligible Canadians. The initial 16-week program was estimated to cost $53.4 billion after cost recoveries from taxation. The program was recently ...

7. 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 ...

8. Potential permanent changes from our experience with COVID-19

   COVID Other Topics Jason Clemens Mark Hasiuk Tweet ...

9. 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 ...

10. Trudeau government COVID assistance lacks proper targeting

    There was a time when the policy debate in Canada focused on how generous government assistance should be for those in “need,” mainly low-income Canadians, resulting in targeted programs such as welfare for the working-age population, ...