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1. Misinformation clouds reignited debate over guaranteed basic income

   Appeared in the National Post, April 28, 2020 Rahm Emanuel, President Obama’s chief of staff during the financial crisis, famously said “ never allow a good crisis go to waste. ” The idea being that during a crisis, citizens are more open to large changes ...

2. A Friend in Need: How Albertans Continue to Keep Federal Finances Afloat, 2020

   In studies published in 2017 and 2019, we measured Alberta’s net contribution to Canada’s economy during the most recent economic boom in the province. The first of these studies showed that when it comes to overall economic growth, job creation, ...

3. Alberta’s debt-to-GDP ratio set to climb—quickly

   Alberta’s economy now faces its third recession in a little more than a decade. Steep economic contractions in 2009 and 2015/16 have caused tremendous economic pain in the province. Now, with cratered oil prices and COVID-19, Alberta is ...

4. Getting political responsibility right in times of crises

   More often than not, politicians are given too much credit for both economic expansions (i.e. prosperity) as well as recessions. That’s not to say that policies don’t matter because they do. But the idea that a politician or government ...

5. Ontario budget deficit likely larger than forecast

   We recently blogged on the Ontario government’s March 2020 Economic and Fiscal Update (hereafter simply referred to as the Fiscal Update), which we concluded was too optimistic in its economic and revenue assumptions, and included new ...

6. What would Chrétien’s budget rules have meant for Trudeau: Part 2

   After successive years of higher-than-promised federal deficits and record levels of per-person federal spending, the Trudeau government now finds itself less prepared to respond to the COVID-19 pandemic. This blog post estimates where ...

7. Ford government’s budget update overly optimistic and likely ineffective

   Appeared in National Newswatch, April 2, 2020 With all the announcements last week by the federal government, and the drama surrounding the passage of the federal spending bill on Wednesday, last week’s Ontario financial and budget update went largely ...

8. 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 ...

9. Stabilizing income vs. economic stimulus—what’s the difference?

   Most people use extra one-time money from government to pay down debt or save. ...

10. Things the Liberal government knows that just ain’t so—Canada is the ‘best place to invest’

    Appeared in the Hill Times, March 11, 2020 Despite all the evidence, Prime Minister Trudeau, his government (and those around them) really believe their policies have made Canada the best place to invest. For example, the government's new Invest in ...