Along with rampant spending, erratic tax changes, and mounting debt, the federal government is developing another bad fiscal habit: its budgets are getting later.
The government has announced that it will present its budget for the 2024-25 fiscal year, which runs from April 1, 2024 to March 31, 2025, on April 16. By then, we will be more than two weeks into the fiscal year. That is too late.
The record of the Liberals under Prime Minister Justin Trudeau was somewhat better before that. While only one of the four budgets they delivered from 2016-17 to 2019-20 appeared before March—and not by much: it came out on Feb. 27, 2018—none appeared after April 1. But their overall record is bad. Of the budgets they should have…
Canada’s immigration point system is designed to select for skilled individuals who have the potential to contribute to our country’s economic growth and meet its evolving labour needs. Since the mid-2010s, it has yielded improvements in the overall labour market outcomes for immigrants.
However, recent policy changes warrant immediate attention – especially as the role of skilled immigrants has become increasingly vital. Compared with similar countries, it’s evident that there are several missed opportunities and systemic challenges hindering our immigration system from reaching its full potential and enhancing the well-being of all Canadians.
Canada and Australia, in particular, share similarities in their skilled…
Nova Scotia’s budgets do not always make national headlines, but the one recently delivered by Minister of Finance and Treasury Board Allan MacMaster got some well-deserved attention. It indexed the province’s personal income tax to inflation. Starting next January, the thresholds for all Nova Scotia’s tax brackets and its non-refundable credits for spouses and dependents will rise with the consumer price index each year.
As Alexandre Laurin and I argued in a recent C.D. Howe Institute report, this move is long overdue. Price surges during the pandemic reminded everyone that inflation and taxes are a toxic combination. Governments that tax nominal amounts even when inflation is eroding money’s purchasing power dodge…
