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1. The federal government doesn’t owe Ontario—or Alberta—more money

   Appeared in the National Post In a year when two heavyweight provinces, Ontario and Alberta, which together constitute 55 per cent of Canada’s GDP, are running substantial deficits, there are three ways to reduce the red ink. Strategy one: cut (and reform ...

2. Western weakness won’t help Ontario’s budget woes

   Appeared in the National Post With the plunge in oil prices over the last six months (and already soft natural gas prices), it’s not headline news to note that provinces heavily dependent on energy-related revenues are suffering. The decline in the ...

3. Equalization allows Nova Scotia and New Brunswick to pass up jobs, income, and tax revenues

   Appeared in the New Brunswick Telegraph Journal, New Glasgow Daily News, and Red Deer Advocate Dec 23, 2014 Canada’s federal equalization program is motivated by good intentions. However, the program has unintended consequences, and creates perverse ...

4. Nova Scotia opts for high taxes rather than fracking

   Appeared in the Calgary Herald, Cape Breton Post, and Moncton Times & Transcript From the fur trade to fisheries and forests, Canada was built on the toil and sweat of those who wanted to prosper. But these days, it’s harder to create opportunity. And ...

5. Ontario's financial problems are Ontario-made

   Appeared in the Calgary Herald and Ottawa Citizen, July 2014 Discussing equalization and other federal transfer payments in summer is about as much fun as a root canal in any season. Nevertheless, Ontario Finance Minister Charles Sousa complained recently ...

6. Is Quebec subsidized by the rest of Canada?

   There is nothing like an election to bring out the optimistic side in people—and some mythmaking. In Quebec, recent attention focused on Premier Pauline Marois and her musings that if her party wins the provincial election, and if separation one day ...

7. Ontario's have not status sets up a divided Canada

   Appeared in the Toronto Sun and Ottawa Sun As anyone who has ever watched puppies tussle over a bone knows, nothing will lead to acrimony quicker than competition for an object everyone wants. Keep the puppy image in mind. Replace it with provincial ...

8. Equalization, Ontario, and the politics of division

   Equalization is a federal transfer program that is explicitly designed to subsidize provinces with weak own-source revenues and to be politically unifying. However, the flip in Ontario?s status from a?have? to a?have-not? province has had, and will ...

9. Equalization: A lousy deal for Ontario and the West

   Appeared in the National Post In a recent drive from Saint John to St. Andrews, New Brunswick, I marvelled at the mostly four-lane highway that connected the two points on the map and how empty it was on a Friday evening on a long weekend.  I compared it ...

10. Super-sized Fiscal Federalism

    In 2012/13, the federal government?s total transfers to the provinces amounted to $60.1 billion, or $1,725 per capita. This study examines one of those federal transfer programs, equalization. Equalization is an unconditional transfer of federal funds to ...