Canada is not keeping up in the global competition for innovation-led growth and prosperity.
Our research and development intensity is low relative to other countries and not enough of our inventions are commercialized at home. Can Ottawa’s current review of the Scientific Research and Experimental Development (SR&ED) tax credit announced in its last budget make a difference?
In principle, yes, but early indications are that the review will focus on issues of dubious merit or those that would best be handled with new measures rather than by modifying SR&ED.
The federal review has two objectives. The first is to assess whether the SR&ED program is effective in encouraging R&D that benefits Canada. The…
Two economic headlines a week apart – the Bank of Canada’s 1 per cent hike in the overnight rate last week, and the 8.1 per cent year-over-year increase in the Consumer Price Index Wednesday – make clear that we are at a major turning point. The Bank has underlined its determination to get inflation, which it admits it underestimated, back to its 2-per-cent target. Canadians can look forward to lower inflation, and also need to be ready for the recession that will precede it.
Although the Bank’s hike was larger than most forecasters expected, the June CPI report validated the big move. Canadians too young to have experienced inflation like this before are discovering what older Canadians already knew…
Two years ago, during a pandemic-induced recession, the unemployment rate was in double-digits and nearly three million workers lost their jobs. Yet for the job market, it seems like ages ago. Canada’s job numbers have bounced back, and with national unemployment rates hovering at all-time lows, we are suddenly confronted (again) with labour and skills shortages.
The inability of employers to find workers with the right skills to fill record-high vacancies is dampening Canada’s economic growth and competitiveness. It also affects health care access and contributes to inflationary pressure, disrupting supply chains and, more broadly, limiting our ability to make headway in raising living standards and in transitioning to a lower…
