Low Interest Rates and the Cost of Government Debt and Canada’s Budget and Deficit Cuts in the Late 20th Century: An Amazing Success Story are the latest installments in an essay series on government deficits that emphasize the risks of higher interest costs on government debt, and note the similarities between today’s federal fiscal situation and the mid-1990s when interest costs consumed one of every three dollars of government revenue. At that time, the government enacted major reforms—including spending reductions—to help dramatically reduce the federal debt.

What Changed in Alberta from the Fall 2021 Mid-year Update to Budget 2022 is a new study that finds following a windfall in resource revenue, the recent Alberta budget increased program spending by $4 billion over the next three years. This increase in spending is above and beyond what would be required to keep pace with inflation and population growth.

What Are the Economic Costs of Raising Revenue by the Canadian Federal Government? finds that for every additional ($1) dollar of personal income tax revenue collected by the federal government, $2.86 is lost in economic activity because of less investment, less entrepreneurship, less spending and other behavioural changes that shrink the tax base.