From: Don Drummond, William B.P. Robson and Nicholas Dahir To: Canadian fiscal observers Date: May 13, 2026 Re: Ottawa’s Perverse Guardrail Fallacy In its 2020 and 2021 budget and updates, Ottawa talked a lot about “fiscal guardrails,” a term that met with much derision. Hard targets like a balanced budget or a dollar reduction in total spending are clear commitments to which a government can be […]
From: Alexandre Laurin To: Budget watchers Date: May 12, 2026 Re: Automatic Tax-Filing is No Panacea Tax time has come and gone, and once again, at least a million Canadians have likely not filed, and don’t intend to. Those who don’t file potentially miss out on various valuable tax credits, including for children, to help workers or to supplement spending on groceries and other essentials. Ottawa’s […]
Published in Financial Post. In its 2020 and 2021 budget and updates, Ottawa talked a lot about “fiscal guardrails,” a term that met with much derision. Hard targets like a balanced budget or a dollar reduction in total spending are clear commitments a government can be held to account for (which, of course, governments usually […]
From: Colin Busby and Nick Dahir To: Canadian fiscal observers Date: May 5, 2026 Re: The Tough Choices That Loom Over Our New 5-Percent Defence Target Having finally reached the North Atlantic Treaty Organization’s 2-percent target of GDP defence spending – set in 2014 – Canada now faces a far steeper, and more critical climb. Raising that share to […]
The trajectory of spending projections in each successive spring federal budgets (and last week’s Economic Update) since 2022 continues to tell a story of fiscal drift. The 2022 Budget’s total spending projections for 2026/27 was at $504 billion. Now, according to the Spring 2026 Update, the government plans to spend $595 billion, an increase of […]
In this episode, host Michael Hainsworth speaks with Kate Koplovich, Senior Policy Analyst at the C.D. Howe Institute, about Ottawa’s proposed Canada Strong Fund and what a new $25 billion sovereign wealth fund could mean for Canadians. They break down how sovereign wealth funds work, why Canada’s model differs from successful funds in places like […]
In this episode, host Michael Hainsworth speaks with Kate Koplovich, Senior Policy Analyst at the C.D. Howe Institute, about Ottawa’s proposed Canada Strong Fund and what a new $25 billion sovereign wealth fund could mean for Canadians. They break down how sovereign wealth funds work, why Canada’s model differs from successful funds in places like […]
Published in Financial Post. It’s tax time. With returns due Thursday, millions of Canadians will once again file at the last minute, late or not at all. Those who don’t file potentially miss out on various valuable tax credits, including for children, to help workers or to supplement spending on groceries and other essentials. Ottawa’s answer […]
by Alexandre Laurin Canada increasingly uses the tax system to deliver income-tested benefits, making filing essential for access. Budget 2025’s “automatic federal benefits” initiative aims to expand participation but largely targets individuals already known to the Canada Revenue Agency and participating in the tax system. This limits its reach when it comes to truly hard-to-engage […]
30 avril 2026 – Environ 1,2 million de Canadiens ne produisent pas de déclaration de revenus chaque année, ce qui expose plusieurs d’entre eux au risque de passer à côté de prestations fondées sur le revenu. Alors qu’Ottawa s’emploie à élargir la production automatique des déclarations, un nouveau rapport de l’Institut C.D. Howe suggère que […]
April 30, 2026 – Roughly 1.2 million Canadians fail to file tax returns, placing many at risk of missing out on income-tested benefits. While Ottawa is moving to expand automatic tax filing, a new C.D. Howe Institute report suggests this approach may have limited impact on hard-to-reach non-filers. In “Simple on Paper, Complex in Practice: […]
Published in Financial Post. Ottawa is pitching Canada’s “first” national sovereign wealth fund as a way to give every Canadian “a stake and the opportunity to benefit” from nation-building projects. The plan? Borrow $25 billion to capitalize the fund, which aims to invest in major infrastructure projects, such as clean and conventional energy, critical minerals, agriculture and […]
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From: Don Drummond, William B.P. Robson and Nicholas Dahir To: Canadian fiscal observers Date: May 13, 2026 Re: Ottawa’s Perverse Guardrail Fallacy In its 2020 and 2021 budget and updates, Ottawa talked a lot about “fiscal guardrails,” a term that met with much derision. Hard targets like a balanced budget or a dollar reduction in total spending are clear commitments to which a government can be […] 
From: Alexandre Laurin To: Budget watchers Date: May 12, 2026 Re: Automatic Tax-Filing is No Panacea Tax time has come and gone, and once again, at least a million Canadians have likely not filed, and don’t intend to. Those who don’t file potentially miss out on various valuable tax credits, including for children, to help workers or to supplement spending on groceries and other essentials. Ottawa’s […] 
Published in Financial Post. In its 2020 and 2021 budget and updates, Ottawa talked a lot about “fiscal guardrails,” a term that met with much derision. Hard targets like a balanced budget or a dollar reduction in total spending are clear commitments a government can be held to account for (which, of course, governments usually […] 
From: Colin Busby and Nick Dahir To: Canadian fiscal observers Date: May 5, 2026 Re: The Tough Choices That Loom Over Our New 5-Percent Defence Target Having finally reached the North Atlantic Treaty Organization’s 2-percent target of GDP defence spending – set in 2014 – Canada now faces a far steeper, and more critical climb. Raising that share to […] 
The trajectory of spending projections in each successive spring federal budgets (and last week’s Economic Update) since 2022 continues to tell a story of fiscal drift. The 2022 Budget’s total spending projections for 2026/27 was at $504 billion. Now, according to the Spring 2026 Update, the government plans to spend $595 billion, an increase of […] 
In this episode, host Michael Hainsworth speaks with Kate Koplovich, Senior Policy Analyst at the C.D. Howe Institute, about Ottawa’s proposed Canada Strong Fund and what a new $25 billion sovereign wealth fund could mean for Canadians. They break down how sovereign wealth funds work, why Canada’s model differs from successful funds in places like […] 
Published in Financial Post. It’s tax time. With returns due Thursday, millions of Canadians will once again file at the last minute, late or not at all. Those who don’t file potentially miss out on various valuable tax credits, including for children, to help workers or to supplement spending on groceries and other essentials. Ottawa’s answer […] 
Published in Financial Post. Ottawa is pitching Canada’s “first” national sovereign wealth fund as a way to give every Canadian “a stake and the opportunity to benefit” from nation-building projects. The plan? Borrow $25 billion to capitalize the fund, which aims to invest in major infrastructure projects, such as clean and conventional energy, critical minerals, agriculture and […]