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1. Empty Homes Tax—Vancouver City Hall barking up the wrong tree

   The City of Vancouver recently announced how many Vancouver homes are considered “unoccupied” and subject to the new Empty Homes Tax. As it turns out, very few homes qualify—meaning city hall should consider other ways to address ...

2. Ottawa using bounty of robust growth to simply boost spending

   The recently-released 2018 federal budget calls for growth in both spending and revenues. Between 2017-18 and 2022-23, total revenues are forecast to grow from $309.6 billion to $373.9 billion—an increase of 21 per cent. After a three ...

3. Canada has a business investment problem—deal with it

   It’s not as if we needed more bad news about Canada’s economic prospects. But we got it last week with the latest data highlighting the country’s weak business investment. Statistics Canada released its latest survey results on ...

4. 2018 budget—another nail in the coffin of Trudeau’s balanced budget promise

   While campaigning for the 2015 election, then-candidate Justin Trudeau made a commitment to Canadians, pledging three years of modest budget deficits of no more than $10 billion, with a balanced budget by the end of his first mandate in ...

5. 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 ...

6. 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 ...

7. Another wake-up call for Canadian governments to improve investment climate

   Suncor, one of the country’s largest energy companies, recently gave Canadian governments what should be a piercing wake-up call. CEO Steve Williams said his company won’t tackle any new major projects in Canada and his company will ...

8. U.S. invites new oil and gas investment while Canada lags behind

   Last week, America’s oil and gas sector received good news on the investment front. Pembina Pipeline Corp’s CEO Mick Dilger said that the next “game-changing” project could be in the United States, not Canada. He’s referring to the ...

9. Trump reforms lay bare Canadian policy missteps

   Prime Minister Trudeau has stated unequivocally that he won’t reduce Canadian taxes to remain competitive. ...

10. Workers, not businesses, will ultimately pay B.C.’s new payroll health tax

    A key policy announcement in B.C.’s 2018 budget is the elimination of Medical Services Premiums (MSP) in 2020 and introduction of a new payroll tax—the employer health tax (EHT). Some claim this tax swap will lift the financial burden ...