Alexandre Laurin – Ottawa Needs A Clear Debt Reduction Target In Monday’s Fiscal Update
From: Alexandre Laurin To: Chrystia Freeland, Minister of Finance Date: November 26, 2020 Re: Ottawa Needs a Clear Debt Reduction Target in Monday’s Fiscal Update Ottawa’s September Speech from the Throne signalled the government’s intention to add tens of billions of dollars to ongoing federal spending. This new permanent, unfunded spending would likely push the federal debt-to-GDP ratio in […] Under the Rug: The Pitfalls of an “Operating Balance” Approach for Reporting Federal Employee Pension Obligations
Alexandre Laurin and William B.P. Robson examine a proposed revamp of the federal statement of operations that would highlight an “operating balance” in addition to the annual surplus or deficit and the resulting change in the government’s accumulated deficit. The authors argue that the proposed presentation would move costs of federal employee pensions that were […] Found, Tomlinson – Ontario Reforms Its Business Property Tax
From: Adam Found and Peter Tomlinson To: Public Finance Experts Date: November 24, 2020 Re: Ontario Reforms its Business Property Tax Can anything good come of the novel coronavirus? Examples are clearly scarce, but there’s one notable entry in Ontario’s 2020 budget. The budget announced long overdue reform to the province’s business property tax – […] Benjamin Dachis – How High Municipal Housing Charges And Taxes Decrease Housing Supply
To: City councils and provincial ministers of housing From: Benjamin Dachis Date: November 20, 2020 Re: How High Municipal Housing Charges and Taxes Decrease Housing Supply Home prices have skyrocketed in places like Vancouver and Toronto in the last decade. These cities have some of the highest charges on new homes and most restrictions on construction. Evidence from around […] Climbing Out of COVID
New C.D. Howe Institute Book Chronicles COVID-19 Policy Insights A new book from the C.D. Howe Institute provides an overview of the Institute’s critical policy recommendations made in response to the developing COVID-19 pandemic. “Climbing Out of COVID” compiles communiqués from the Institute’s Crisis Working Groups, as well as Intelligence Memos and op-eds, published up […] Jenkins, Kronick – Dealing With The Second Wave: Further Results
From: Paul Jenkins and Jeremy M. Kronick To: Policymakers Across the Country Date: November 16, 2020 Subject: Dealing with the Second Wave: Further Results In a recent Intelligence Memo we presented results using an epidemiological-economic model to analyze a range of possible interventions to turn the recent surge in infection rates back down to our […] Miles Wu – An International Debt Comparison
From: Miles Wu To: Canadian Policymakers Date: November 11, 2020 Re: An International Debt Comparison Since March, Canada has announced more than over $350 billion in spending measures to confront the pandemic. Comparing the evolution of Canadian gross debt with the rest of the world, which is also grappling with COVID-19, can help assess our […] Luc Godbout – Ancrages Budgétaires, Boussoles, Cibles, Garde-fous, Règles D’or Ou Tutti Quanti – Au-delà Du Nom Choisi, Cerner Leur Rôle
De: Luc Godbout À: Chrystia Freeland, Ministre des Finances Date: 10 novembre, 2020 Re: Ancrages budgétaires, boussoles, cibles, garde-fous, règles d’or ou tutti quanti – au-delà du nom choisi, cerner leur rôle On ne le répètera jamais assez, la crise de la COVID-19 constitue un bel exemple où l’État a un puissant rôle de régulation économique à jouer. […] S2 E19: The Path to Prosperity Post COVID-19
What will it take to put Canada on the path to prosperity in a post-COVID world? The economy is forecast to rise in 2021 but it’s a case of “one step forward, two steps back.” Taxing our way out of Coronavirus debt isn’t the solution, warn Goldy Hyder and Robert Asselin of the Business Council […] Le Canada, L’élève Zélé Du Fmi – La Presse Opinion
Le Canada déploie le plus grand effort financier de toutes les économies avancées pour lutter contre la crise, effort que permet son endettement le plus faible. Dans l’ampleur comme dans la manière, il suit à la lettre les prescriptions du Fonds monétaire international (FMI). Il y a pourtant lieu de craindre un excès de zèle à Ottawa.
Le Moniteur des finances publiques, publié lors des récentes assemblées annuelles du FMI et de la Banque mondiale, tenues conjointement à Washington, permet de comparer la situation du Canada avec celle des autres pays développés.
Selon le FMI, le Canada enregistrera en 2020 un déficit de 19,9 % de son PIB, le pourcentage le plus élevé des économies avancées, dont le déficit moyen sera…
William Scarth – Fiscal Policy After The Pandemic
From: William Scarth To: Finance Minister Chrystia Freeland Date: October 27, 2020 Re: Fiscal Policy After the Pandemic Canadians have appreciated the federal government acting as a shock absorber in times of crisis, both during the Depression of the 1930s and at the present time. Luckily, the debt-to-GDP ratio had been reduced from its historical high (110 percent in […] William B.P. Robson – Ottawa’s Spending Won’t Stay Cheap
From: William B.P. Robson To: Enthusiasts for, and skeptics about, federal government spending Date: October 26, 2020 Re: Ottawa’s spending won’t stay cheap Looked at one way, the federal government’s recent musings about spending tens – even hundreds – of billions more dollars on a raft of new programs seem weird. Nobody thought we could afford such a […]