Search

Search results

1. Employers must be allowed to temporarily lay off workers during COVID crisis

   Appeared in National Newswatch, March 27, 2020 Aside from the enormous health-related challenges due to the COVID-19 virus, employers and workers are feeling major economic pain with job loss, reduced income and revenue. The ability of businesses to ...

2. Ottawa’s ‘Emergency Response Benefit’ leaves many unanswered questions

   This week, Parliament passed legislation giving sweeping powers to Finance Minister Bill Morneau, including the power to unilaterally spend and borrow without parliamentary approval until September 2020. While the Liberals agreed to ...

3. Price controls and anti-gouging laws make matters worse

   Economists are used to having to repeat ourselves as we try to communicate the basic ideas of our discipline to a public and politicians who are resistant to our message about the importance of prices and markets. This is never more true ...

4. Finance minister can access ‘all money required’ without consulting Parliament

   It was nice while it lasted. No, not the pandemic, that can end anytime. What was nice, was the way political leaders across the country put aside partisan differences and spoke with a common purpose and understanding of the grave ...

5. Boost EI but don’t create new wage subsidy program

   Appeared in the Financial Post, March 26, 2020 As part of the $52 billion aid package to support Canadian workers and businesses, which the House of Commons and Senate approved Wednesday, small businesses will be eligible for a temporary wage subsidy to ...

6. Trudeau government gets unlimited spending authority for six months

   Appeared in the Toronto Sun, March 26, 2020 On Wednesday, the government passed legislation (which the Opposition members either supported or acquiesced to) giving sweeping powers to Finance Minister Bill Morneau, including the power to unilaterally spend ...

7. Ontario reduces hydro rates yet fundamental problems still plague province’s electricity market

   In response to the COVID-19 crisis, the Ontario government is temporarily reducing hydro rates, freezing electricity prices at 10.1 cents per-kilowatt-hour (the lowest rate possible) for the next 45 days for families, farmers and small ...

8. Trudeau government plan would have undermined Opposition ability to hold government to account

   Numerous media outlets including the National Post reported Monday that the Trudeau government planned to introduce a bill in the House of Commons that gave sweeping powers to the finance minister to unilaterally impose taxes and spend ...

9. If history is any guide, COVID-19 will transform Canada in heretofore unknown ways

   COVID-19’s disruption of Canadian life is being met with extraordinary government action. Indeed, some are saying we’re in a war against the virus and war requires mobilization of all resources with associated powers. The minority Trudeau ...

10. An Affront to Democracy: New legislation proposed giving Liberals unprecedented powers

    Canada’s economy was sputtering prior to the COVID-19 crisis. ...