The New Year traditionally arrives with resolutions and a fresh start at self-improvement. Here’s one simple suggestion for all political leaders: Embrace more realism in public policy. Let’s consider five areas in which Canada has clear goals, but falls short of realistic plans to achieve them.
First, inflation control. Fiscal authorities must not add more fuel to the inflation fire with new spending even as the Bank of Canada wields its interest-rate hammer. Ottawa needs to show more realism about its spending ambitions. Inflation control is a whole-of-government responsibility. After years of record-breaking spending and deficits, we need a credible plan to improve the nation’s finances and ensure that the…
La nature a beau être aimée de tous, il sera difficile de trouver tout l’argent nécessaire pour stopper, puis renverser sa perte de biodiversité, ai-je constaté en allant fouiner à la COP15. Un beau défi pour la finance durable.
L’expression « 30 x 30 » qui a retenu l’attention fait allusion aux 30 % de la terre et aux 30 % de l’eau qui doivent être protégés d’ici 2030. Mais elle désigne aussi les 30 milliards de dollars américains* d’aide annuelle aux pays en développement promise à partir de 2030.
Ce deuxième 30 x 30 est un compromis. Les pays riches étaient réticents, eux qui n’arrivent pas à livrer les 100 milliards par an promis au Sud pour lutter contre le…
The festive season should be a time to look back on work well done. In far too many Canadian cities, however, one key task is still incomplete.
Canadian municipalities outside Nova Scotia run on a calendar year. They should have presented – and ideally, their councils should have approved – their 2023 budgets by now. If Jan. 1 comes and goes with no budget, a city is taxing and spending without proper scrutiny and approval from elected representatives and voters. That is an affront to democracy. Sadly, it is the situation in most major cities.
The C.D. Howe Institute does an annual survey of fiscal transparency in 32 of Canada’s most populous municipalities. Thirty-one of them have fiscal years that begin on Jan. 1. As of…
