The $343-billion deficit for this fiscal year, announced in July by former finance minister Bill Morneau in his fiscal snapshot, was shocking at the time. Partly it was the number itself, which implied that debt would top $1-trillion before year-end. And because, with no budget or even a fiscal plan out of Ottawa this year, the tally was incomplete. Now Mr. Morneau is gone, and his replacement, Chrystia Freeland, has signalled at least another $40-billion in new spending – which will push the borrowing higher yet.
The 2015 election commitment to run “modest deficits” was a politically clever wedge issue – a pledge the Conservatives did not want to make, and the NDP dared not make. And borrowing in the depths of the COVID-19…
Against the stark backdrop of intensifying climate change, the Supreme Court will begin hearing arguments on Tuesday concerning the constitutionality of the Greenhouse Gas Pollution Pricing Act – what is known as the federal carbon-pricing backstop.
The hearing comes after a long saga of proceedings through provincial courts of appeal, and the decision will invariably be historic in how it shapes the way our country regulates carbon emissions in the decades to come. In Ontario and Saskatchewan, majority decisions upheld the backstop, finding that Ottawa had jurisdiction for the legislation under the “national concern” branch of the federal peace, order and good government power; in Alberta, the court found that it would…
Looking for more tools that the Bank of Canada can use to help our COVID-stricken economy recover, some observers argue for “going direct,” having the Bank of Canada “print money” and deliver it directly to households as transfers. In our view, that is a bad idea.
Broadly speaking, the Bank of Canada can “go direct” in two ways. One is to transfer extra funds directly to the general public — a technique often described as a “helicopter drop.” Imagine squadrons of helicopters flying over the country dropping cash out their loading bays. In fact, neither helicopters nor, for the most part, cash would be involved: rather, the Bank of Canada would send people cheques or make direct deposits into their bank accounts — a one-for-one,…
