Opinions on pipelines are flowing around Canada more quickly than the oil. The ultimate decisions on natural resource projects, however, ought to derive from facts. As an economist studying income inequality over the last 15 years, I can offer a key fact to the debate. In my view, nothing has contributed more than natural resources to buttressing the Canadian middle class against the rapidly changing global economy of the 21st century.
The importance of resources to middle-class incomes is most clearly seen by looking at a simple measure: the earnings of the middle worker in the economy (the median). Between 2000 and 2015, Canadian median earnings rose by just 6 per cent after inflation, or less than half a per cent a…
Free licensed child care. It sounds like a parents’ dream. But look a little closer at the Government of Ontario’s recently announced plan to deliver free licensed child care for preschoolers, and flaws emerge. Beyond the arguably late starting age of 2½ years, this initiative could have unwelcome consequences due to its limited accessibility and its potential to create excess demand for licensed preschool care.
Certainly the need for a solution is great. Gradual rises in dual-income-earner families and the employment rate of women in Ontario have led to higher needs for child care over the past few decades. But cost is probably the main barrier to access. According to the latest family survey by Statistics Canada, about 43…
For the first time in three years, headline inflation in Canada has moved above the Bank of Canada’s 2-per-cent target. Whether or not it will continue to increase, the fact that the bank’s three core measures of inflation averaged above 2 per cent for the first time in six years certainly suggests that it will. But the question remains, why has it been so hard to hit the 2-per-cent target? In a recent C.D. Howe Institute paper, we show that demographics – often thought of as an issue for health care or pension costs – has acted as a drag on monetary policy effectiveness and, in turn, has led to lower inflation.
Much work has been done examining the issue of tepid inflation since the financial crisis. Canada has not been immune…
