Guidelines and Creativity Key to Restoring Financial Confidence: Crisis Working Group on Monetary and Financial Measures
June 22, 2020 – Governments and regulators should set out guidelines to allow for creativity in encouraging investments, such as a “sandbox” where innovative approaches can be tested, according to a new C.D. Howe Institute working group report.
The C.D. Howe Institute Crisis Working Group on Monetary and Financial Measures argues such measures would increase the confidence of lenders and investors when engaging with businesses.
The group, co-chaired by David Dodge, former Governor of the Bank of Canada, and Mark Zelmer, former Deputy Superintendent, OSFI, also tackled issues such as the underwhelming uptake of certain support measures offered by governments, uncertainty on future policy responses to the pandemic,…
Accelerate Infrastructure Projects and Adapt Restructuring Processes: Crisis Working Group on Business Continuity and Trade
June 17, 2020 – Accelerating productivity-enhancing infrastructure projects could provide much-needed stimulus and help Canada’s economy recover from the COVID-19 crisis, according to a C.D. Howe Institute Crisis Working Group.
The Crisis Working Group on Business Continuity and Trade, in its most recent meetings on May 26 and June 2, 2020, also emphasized the need for adapting Canada’s bankruptcy and restructuring process to cope with the potential for widespread insolvencies.
The group of industry experts and economists, co-chaired by Dwight Duncan, Senior Strategic Advisor at McMillan LLP and former Ontario Minister of Finance, and Jeanette Patell, Vice-President of Government Affairs and Policy for GE Canada,…
Data Needed for Income Support Transition Planning: Crisis Working Group on Household Income and Credit Support
June 8, 2020 – Better data is required to make informed decisions about an income support transition model, says the C.D. Howe Institute’s Crisis Working Group on Household Income and Credit Support.
At their recent meeting, working group members discussed options for providing continued income support to Canada Emergency Response Benefit (CERB) recipients who, after exhausting their maximum eligibility period, may remain unemployed and without access to Employment Insurance (EI). The group also explored a solution for getting real-time pay information to tackle the administrative challenge of using income-tested support programs, and discussed the potential impact of working from home on young employees and the gender wage…
Nursing Home Fatalities Expose Weakness in Long-Term Care Provision: Crisis Working Group on Public Health and Emergency Measures
June 2, 2020 — While Canada has invested in residential long-term care at similar levels to other countries, it has drastically under-invested in home and community-based care, according to the C.D. Howe Institute’s Crisis Working Group on Public Health and Emergency Measures. Long-term care and retirement homes are the center of the epidemic in Canada, with about 80 percent of COVID deaths having occurred in residential care facilities — a death rate much higher than most other nations.
Because a high proportion of seniors in Canada live in an institutional care setting, they are at a much higher risk of exposure, infection and death from COVID-19 than seniors living in the community or in the home. While there is…
Bank of Canada Should Keep Overnight Rate at 0.25 Percent, Focus on Implications of Expanded Balance Sheet: C.D. Howe Institute Monetary Policy Council
May 28, 2020 – The C.D. Howe Institute’s Monetary Policy Council (MPC) recommends that the Bank of Canada maintains its target for the overnight rate, its benchmark policy interest rate, at 0.25 percent for at least a year.
The MPC provides an independent assessment of the monetary stance consistent with the Bank of Canada’s 2 percent inflation target. Jeremy Kronick, Associate Director, Research, chaired today’s meeting, sitting in for the MPC’s usual chair, William Robson, the Institute’s President and CEO. Council members make recommendations for the Bank of Canada’s upcoming interest-rate announcement, the subsequent announcement, and the announcements six months and one year ahead.
All ten members…
