William Robson and Nicholas Dahir – How to Get Better 2025 Budgets from Federal and Provincial Governments
Published in The Globe and Mail. Canada’s federal, provincial and territorial governments are gearing up for another year’s budgets, which inevitably feature clashes over taxation and spending priorities. Some principles, though, should unite everyone, including the need for government budgets to be accessible, timely and reliable. The C.D. Howe Institute’s annual report card on Canada’s […] Intelligence Memos: 2024 in Review
To: Our Faithful Readers Date: January 2, 2025 Re: Intelligence Memos: 2024 in Review Intelligence memos are a key way C.D. Howe Institute researchers share their insights about current events. And 2024 had no shortage of material: Canada’s healthcare struggles, housing affordability, the Bank of Canada’s inflation fight, a host of questionable fiscal policies from Ottawa and the […] The 2024 Year in Review
With 2024 almost behind us, Michael Hainsworth shares some of the CDHI podcast’s most fascinating interviews and policy conversations during the course of a tumultuous year.
Graph of the Week: Federal Spending Projections Soar by $123 Billion Since 2019
The trajectory of spending projections in each successive federal fall statement since 2019 tells an astonishing story of fiscal recklessness. The fall statement for 2019 – the last projections before COVID – put spending for 2024/25, the year we are now in, at $421 billion. The 2021 fall statement projected $465 billion for 2024/25. The […] William Robson, Colin Busby and Nick Dahir – It’s Time to End the Circus of Fall Economic Statements
From: William Robson, Colin Busby and Nick Dahir To: Canadian economic observers Date: December 23, 2024 Re: It’s Time to End the Circus of Fall Economic Statements Chrystia Freeland’s resignation on the day she was to deliver the federal government’s fall economic statement made the 2024 statement more of a circus than usual. But the fact that fall […] The 2024 Year in Review
With 2024 almost behind us, Michael Hainsworth shares some of the CDHI podcast’s most fascinating interviews and policy conversations during the course of a tumultuous year. Featuring: Wilbur Ross, Conrad Black, Martha Hall Findlay, John Baird, John Manley, Jason Kenney, John Tory, Mitzie Hunter, Rosalie Wyonch, Jane Philpott, Michelle Alexopoulos, Jeremy Kronick, Heather Evans, A.J. […] Jeremy Kronick and Steve Ambler – Bank’s Big Rate Cut an Exercise in Risk Management
To: Interest rate watchers From: Jeremy M. Kronick and Steve Ambler Date: December 20, 2024 Re: Bank’s Big Rate Cut an Exercise in Risk Management Before the release of Statistics Canada’s labour survey for November, markets were fairly evenly split between predicting a 25-basis-point cut by the Bank of Canada and a 50-basis-point cut. The increase in […] No Balanced Budget For Christmas with Bill Robson
Two bombshells were dropped on Canadians this week with the abrupt departure of Finance Minister Chrystia Freeland – and news that Canada spent $20 billion more than it budgeted. On this episode of the podcast, C.D. Howe Institute President and CEO William Robson explains where all this leaves Canada’s finances.
William Robson, Colin Busby and Nicholas Dahir – It’s Time to End the Circus of Fall Economic Statements
Published in The Globe and Mail. Chrystia Freeland’s resignation on the day she was to deliver the federal government’s fall economic statement made the 2024 statement more of a circus than usual. But the fact that fall statements have become such a spectacle – effectively putting the government on a two-budget-per-year cycle – is a […] William Robson – Any Remaining Confidence in this Government’s Fiscal Management is Gone
Published in The Hub. The resignation of former finance minister Chrystia Freeland hours before the federal government delivered its 2024 Fall Economic Statement overshadowed the statement itself. But her resignation and the numbers in the statement are variations on the same message: the federal government is not, and for years has not been, remotely serious […] William Robson on BNN Bloomberg – Freeland’s Exit and Ottawa’s Slipshod Financial Reporting
Our President and CEO William Robson appeared on BNN Bloomberg in the wake of Federal Finance Minister Chrystia Freeland resignation to discuss the worrisome state of Ottawa’s books.
Robson, Dahir – The Worrying Delay in the Release of the Federal Government’s Public Accounts
Published in The Globe and Mail.
In recent years, the federal government’s fiscal management has looked increasingly slipshod. The unprecedented deficits and buildup of debt, the explosive increase in the number and cost of federal employees, and the addition of tens of billions to the spending projections in each successive budget and fiscal update are unsettling, but so, too, is the erosion of accountability in budgets and in the public accounts.
Ottawa is delivering a fall economic statement on Monday – so late that it’s barely fall any more. The government failed to deliver a budget at all in 2020 – something that had never happened before – and presented three of the four budgets since then after the April 1 beginning…