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  1. Canada’s Past Fiscal Leaders Are Now Fiscal Laggards: An Analysis of 2017 Provincial Budgets

    Around the turn of the 21st century, Alberta and Ontario could both boast of having comparatively sound public finances relative to most other provinces. In recent years, however, serious fiscal problems have emerged in both provinces. Alberta and Ontario ...

  2. Wynne government places big bet on revenue growth

    Appeared in the Ottawa Sun, August 23, 2017 This year, Ontario’s operating budget is balanced for the first time in a decade. Of course, Ontario remains heavily indebted and is adding billions of dollars in new debt every year from capital spending that ...

  3. Why is Ontario’s debt burden shrinking so slowly?

    Appeared in the Globe and Mail, August 14, 2017 Premier Wynne’s government has repeatedly stated the importance of bringing down the province’s debt-to-GDP ratio, which shot up during and after the 2008/09 recession. Specifically, it wants to bring this ...

  4. Wynne government could take a few pointers from Liberal brethren in Quebec

    Appeared in the Toronto Sun, August 13, 2017 Ontarians usually don’t follow closely the economic developments of their eastern neighbour but they certainly should. In fact, Premier Kathleen Wynne’s government could take a few pointers from their Liberal ...

  5. Minister Sousa misses the big picture on Ontario’s economy and finances

    Appeared in the Toronto Sun, Aug 9, 2017 It seems Ontario’s Finance Minister Charles Sousa doesn’t agree with me about the state of provincial finances. In a letter to the Toronto Sun he criticized a recent column of mine, suggesting I wasn’t ...

  6. Wishful Thinking: An Analysis of Ontario’s Timeline for Shrinking Its Debt Burden

    Since 2007/08, Ontario’s level of public debt has approximately doubled. As a result, the provincial debt-to-GDP ratio has climbed to historically high levels in recent years. In its 2017 budget, Premier Wynne’s government presented a timeline for ...

  7. How public debt begets public debt in Ontario

    Appeared in the Ottawa Sun, Aug 2, 2017 One of the most important policy problems facing Ontario is the province’s big government debt burden, which amounts to approximately $21,000 per person. It’s also proving to be a stubbornly difficult one to solve. ...

  8. Alberta’s run of deficits tower over Ontario’s worst

    Appeared in the Financial Post, May 30, 2017 Over the past decade, Ontario emerged as the poster child for poor fiscal management in Canada, due largely to the province’s deep run of deficits. However, thanks to a decade of rapid spending growth and ...

  9. Race to the Bottom: Comparing the Recent Deficits of Alberta and Ontario

    Alberta’s public finances are deteriorating rapidly, with the provincial government set to run a cumulative budget deficit of $27.6 billion over the three-year period from 2015/16 to 2017/18. Until recently, by far the largest deficits of any ...

  10. Growth in government debt in Ontario hasn’t stopped—in fact, it hasn’t even slowed

    Appeared in the Ottawa Sun, May 3, 2017 Last week, Ontario Finance Minister Charles Sousa announced that after nine straight deficits, the government’s operating budget would finally be balanced for the coming fiscal year. Some people might assume that ...