From: John LesterTo: Canadians Concerned About Federal SpendingDate: November 5, 2025Re: Curing Canada’s Innovation Ills Canada faces a persistent productivity challenge that directly affects our national prosperity. At its core lies weak investment in machinery and equipment, and lacklustre innovation. I propose a set of targeted reforms aimed at fixing Canada’s innovation ills. Strengthening intellectual […]
November 3, 2025 – For some parents and seniors, taking a second income, working more or drawing extra pension income can mean losing most of every extra dollar of income to taxes and benefit clawbacks. This can significantly weaken incentives to work or save, according to a C.D. Howe Institute report. In “The Clawback Trap: […]
The Clawback Trap: How Canada’s Benefit System Can Undermine Work and Saving by Alexandre Laurin and Nicholas Dahir Clawbacks of government benefits can create high marginal effective tax rates (METRs) on extra income, or high participation tax rates (PTRs) on prospective income from taking on a job, that have a negative impact on work incentives […]
From: Don DrummondTo: Budget watchersDate: November 3, 2025Re: How the Budget Could Deliver a Competitive Corporate Tax System Mark Carney has said tomorrow’s budget will include measures to give Canada a “highly competitive corporate tax system” though he offered few details. The Liberal election platform included some scattered tax measures intended to enhance competitiveness, but […]
Published in Financial Post. Opinion is divided on whether the federal government has fiscal room to play with in next week’s budget. Jason Jacques, interim Parliamentary Budget Officer, describes Ottawa’s fiscal prospects as “alarming,” stupefying” and “unsustainable.” Kevin Page, who was the first such officer, says the government’s finances are sustainable but significant new revenues will be needed to generate […]
From: Don DrummondTo: Budget watchersDate: October 27, 2025Re: How the Budget Could Deliver a Competitive Corporate Tax System Mark Carney has said his November 4 budget will include measures to give Canada a “highly competitive corporate tax system” though he offered few details. The Liberal election platform included some scattered tax measures intended to enhance […]
October 23, 2025 – Canada’s federal, provincial and territorial governments should be more transparent about how they tax and spend, says a new report card from the C.D. Howe Institute. The report reveals big contrasts across the country. Alberta topped the class with an A+ for budgets, estimates and public accounts that were timely, accessible […]
• Canadians and elected representatives wanting to know how their federal, provincial and territorial governments tax and spend, and how their capacity to deliver services is changing, face too many obstacles. As grades ranging from A+ to D- in this report card reveal, some governments provide useful and timely information, but too many present information […]
From: Yves Giroux and Alexandre LaurinTo: Canadian fiscal observersDate: October 22, 2025Re: Fall Budgets Good; New Capital Investment Definition Bad The federal government recently announced two major changes to the way it manages and presents its finances: A new capital budgeting framework and a shift to fall budgets, with fiscal updates moving to the spring. […]
De la part de: Yves Giroux and Alexandre Laurin A l’attention de: Observateurs économiqueDate: 22 octobre, 2025Sujet: Ottawa promet plus de transparence, mais sa nouvelle astuce comptable fait l’inverse Le 6 octobre, le gouvernement fédéral a annoncé deux changements majeurs dans la façon dont il gère et présente ses finances : la création d’un cadre […]
Published in Financial Post. The federal government recently announced two major changes to the way it manages and presents its finances: a new capital budgeting framework and a shift to fall budgets, with fiscal updates moving to the spring. Moving budgets to the fall does make sense. But reclassifying spending through a new capital framework […]
Government consumption – exhaustive spending on employees and other inputs – competes most directly with the private sector for resources. When the economy is weak, as in the early 1990s, after the 2008 financial crisis, after the 2014 oil price collapse and during the COVID pandemic, it is natural for government consumption to rise as […]
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From: John LesterTo: Canadians Concerned About Federal SpendingDate: November 5, 2025Re: Curing Canada’s Innovation Ills Canada faces a persistent productivity challenge that directly affects our national prosperity. At its core lies weak investment in machinery and equipment, and lacklustre innovation. I propose a set of targeted reforms aimed at fixing Canada’s innovation ills. Strengthening intellectual […] 
November 3, 2025 – For some parents and seniors, taking a second income, working more or drawing extra pension income can mean losing most of every extra dollar of income to taxes and benefit clawbacks. This can significantly weaken incentives to work or save, according to a C.D. Howe Institute report. In “The Clawback Trap: […] 
From: Don DrummondTo: Budget watchersDate: November 3, 2025Re: How the Budget Could Deliver a Competitive Corporate Tax System Mark Carney has said tomorrow’s budget will include measures to give Canada a “highly competitive corporate tax system” though he offered few details. The Liberal election platform included some scattered tax measures intended to enhance competitiveness, but […] 
Published in Financial Post. Opinion is divided on whether the federal government has fiscal room to play with in next week’s budget. Jason Jacques, interim Parliamentary Budget Officer, describes Ottawa’s fiscal prospects as “alarming,” stupefying” and “unsustainable.” Kevin Page, who was the first such officer, says the government’s finances are sustainable but significant new revenues will be needed to generate […] 
From: Don DrummondTo: Budget watchersDate: October 27, 2025Re: How the Budget Could Deliver a Competitive Corporate Tax System Mark Carney has said his November 4 budget will include measures to give Canada a “highly competitive corporate tax system” though he offered few details. The Liberal election platform included some scattered tax measures intended to enhance […] 
• Canadians and elected representatives wanting to know how their federal, provincial and territorial governments tax and spend, and how their capacity to deliver services is changing, face too many obstacles. As grades ranging from A+ to D- in this report card reveal, some governments provide useful and timely information, but too many present information […] 
From: Yves Giroux and Alexandre LaurinTo: Canadian fiscal observersDate: October 22, 2025Re: Fall Budgets Good; New Capital Investment Definition Bad The federal government recently announced two major changes to the way it manages and presents its finances: A new capital budgeting framework and a shift to fall budgets, with fiscal updates moving to the spring. […] 
Published in Financial Post. The federal government recently announced two major changes to the way it manages and presents its finances: a new capital budgeting framework and a shift to fall budgets, with fiscal updates moving to the spring. Moving budgets to the fall does make sense. But reclassifying spending through a new capital framework […] 
Government consumption – exhaustive spending on employees and other inputs – competes most directly with the private sector for resources. When the economy is weak, as in the early 1990s, after the 2008 financial crisis, after the 2014 oil price collapse and during the COVID pandemic, it is natural for government consumption to rise as […]