Search

Search results

1. Under threat—the lucrative export of U.S. dollar notes and U.S. Treasury securities

   President Donald Trump’s policies to balance trade and increase employment will likely fail because of an iron law of international economics: If a country spends more on goods and services than it produces, the difference must be ...

2. Ontario budget ignores past promises, offers no plan to enhance economic competitiveness

   Predictably, many of the headlines on Ontario’s 2018 budget, released today, focus on Premier Kathleen Wynne’s so-called “free” child care plan and other big-spending items. It is, after all, a big-spending budget. But crucially, the ...

3. 35-stop shopping—coming soon to a government near you

   If more innovation programs were all we needed to solve our innovation problems, they would have been solved a long time ago. ...

4. Trudeau government 0-for-3 for budgets that improve fundamentals for growing the economy

   With the Trudeau government tabling its third budget, the script has become familiar. Each budget the government loudly proclaims platitudes about growing the economy and helping the middle class. In reality, there’s no magic lever to ...

5. Workers will ultimately pay part of B.C.’s new employer health tax

   Last week, British Columbia’s provincial government announced the elimination of Medical Services Premiums (MSP) premiums by 2020. And introduced a new payroll tax—the employer health tax (EHT), to be implemented a year earlier. Does ...

6. Let’s not subsidize journalism

   When the country’s financial and economic journalists gather in Ottawa Feb. 27 to be voluntarily locked up for several hours in the Ottawa Convention Centre to read (and try to digest) the federal budget, many will be wondering, more ...

7. Repeating Past Mistakes? Spending Restraint Critical for Ontario’s Fiscal Health

   In 2016/17, Ontario’s net debt reached $302 billion, or approximately $21, 500 per Ontarian. The province’s debt-to-GDP level stands at 38 percent, just below its all-time historic high. Ontario’s net debt has increased dramatically since 2003/04, ...

8. Who's better having the money—governments or individual Canadians

   Appeared in the Financial Post, January 17, 2018 Much, if not all policy debates, ultimately boil down to a single fundamental question—is the city, province or country, and more specifically its residents, better off having more or less of their income. ...

9. Average number of sick days taken by Ontario teachers increased by 29 per cent

   Ontario auditor general Bonnie Lysyk recently released her annual report, and has once again discovered a number of instances of government waste and mismanagement. However, one issue that she has uncovered—an increase in the number of ...

10. The key fiscal lesson of Canada’s first 150 years—spend prudently

    As 2017 draws to a close, Canadians can reflect not only on the outcomes of the last year, but in this milestone 150th year of the federation, also where we are headed. What shall Canada’s economic achievements be as the next 50 years ...