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1. Ford government must plot path to budget balance

   Appeared in National Newswatch, February 18, 2021 The Ford government released Ontario’s 2020/21 third quarter fiscal update last week. As expected, the numbers were ugly. The Department of Finance now anticipates a $38.5 billion budget deficit for this ...

2. Empty house tax fails to meaningfully increase housing availability in Vancouver

   The Agricultural Land Reserve accounts for 22 per cent of the land in Metro Vancouver. ...

3. The Growing Debt Burden for Canadians: 2021 Edition

   Budget deficits and increasing debt have become serious fiscal challenges facing the federal and many provincial governments recently. Since 2007/08, combined federal and provincial net debt (inflation-adjusted) has doubled from $1.0 trillion to a ...

4. Ontario’s new finance minister must recognize the importance of budget balance

   Appeared in National Newswatch, January 14, 2021 With the resignation of Rod Phillips, Ontario’s incoming finance minister Peter Bethlenfalvy inherits a difficult job. The province’s fiscal challenges long pre-date the global pandemic. Queen’s Park has ...

5. Road tolls in Vancouver—a great idea if done right

   Appeared in the Vancouver Province, January 6, 2021 Vancouver City Council recently voted in favour of “mobility pricing,” which is another way of saying user fees for drivers. City staff will now study the idea of charging tolls for cars entering and ...

6. Rising debt-interest payments further threaten Alberta government’s deteriorating fiscal situation

   Appeared in the Calgary Sun, December 9, 2020 Last week in this space, we outlined the Alberta government’s deteriorating finances, as spelled out in the Kenney government’s recent fiscal update, which projects that the province will rack up $50.0 billion ...

7. Kenney government must reduce spending to right fiscal ship

   Appeared in the Calgary Sun, December 2, 2020 Alberta’s government finances are in trouble. In its fiscal update last week, the Kenney government forecasted a historic deficit of $21.3 billion in 2020/21, with sizable deficits over the following two years ...

8. What a difference a decade can make—southwestern Ontario’s sobering lesson for Alberta

   At the start of this century, southwestern Ontario was among the most prosperous regions in Canada. With a strong manufacturing sector, there were plenty of good high-paying jobs. In the following years, the regional economy was battered ...

9. Housing affordability will continue to decline absent basic reforms

   Appeared in the Toronto Sun, November 25, 2020 In the turmoil of 2020, a crucial issue—housing affordability in cities such as Toronto and Vancouver—has fallen somewhat off the radar. But the fundamental problem remains. Housing supply growth is failing ...

10. Condo booms still aren’t enough to satisfy housing demand

    Appeared in the Toronto Sun, October 21, 2020 Here’s an interesting fact. Before the pandemic—specifically, between 2015 and 2019— Toronto and Vancouver accounted for 44.2 per cent of all net new jobs in Canada. That’s some massive job creation. One would ...