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1. Government can't fix everything

   Appeared in the Huffington Post and Vancouver Province “The government should fix it” is a common refrain when people encounter a problem in society. Governments happily oblige because it means more votes for politicians and more work for bureaucrats. ...

2. Super-sized Fiscal Federalism

   In 2012/13, the federal government?s total transfers to the provinces amounted to $60.1 billion, or $1,725 per capita. This study examines one of those federal transfer programs, equalization. Equalization is an unconditional transfer of federal funds to ...

3. Federal Government Failure in Canada, 2013 Edition: A review of the Auditor General's reports, 1988-2013

   The discussion of the limitations of government and subsequent government failure is wholly absent from debate in Canada where, unfortunately, we still assume that governments act benevolently and without institutional constraints. That this is not true ...

4. Ottawa drops hints for 2014 budget

     Fiscal policy is really about taxes and spending and the federal government recently provided some hints on its plans in these areas. In the recent Speech from the Throne, the government reaffirmed its commitment to balancing the budget by 2015-16 and ...

5. Alberta blows through two-thirds of its financial assets

   Appeared in the Calgary Herald If there was ever a place that was the “anti-Greece” when it comes to public finances, it must be Alberta. Compare Alberta to many places around the world, be it European fiscal disasters, or even nearer to home, and in most ...

6. Alberta's double-dip decline in financial assets

   In just six years, the value of Alberta's net financial assets--the broadest, most comprehensive measurement of Alberta's financial wealth--has dropped by 65 percent, from $34.5 billion in the 2006/07 fiscal year to $12.1 billion in 2012/13, a ...

7. The Harper government's multi-billion dollar transparency problem

   Appeared in the Calgary Herald Canadians who don’t regularly track how governments spend money might be surprised to find how myths crop up about government expenditures. Exhibit A is a new report that claims Canada needs even more “industrial policy,” ...

8. Now Comes the Hard Part: Governing

   Appeared in the Vancouver Sun The BC Liberals and particularly Premier Christy Clark deserve the praise they’re receiving for their surprise electoral victory. After all, the Liberals reversed a double-digit deficit in the polls and ended up securing a ...

9. Spending Beyond Our Means; Sticking it to the Next Generation

   Appeared in the National Post Over the course of the past several months, outgoing Bank of Canada Governor Mark Carney and Federal Finance Minister Jim Flaherty have repeatedly warned that Canadians are spending beyond their means and taking on too much ...

10. Save Alberta from the high-taxers

    Appeared in the Calgary Herald and Financial Post In a recent debate on the pages of the National Post many Albertans might have missed, two economists, Rhys Kesselman from Simon Fraser University, and Jack Mintz from the University of Calgary, sparred ...