Ken Boessenkool – Supply-side Shocks And The Covid Economic Recovery
To: Federal and Provincial Ministers of Finance From: Ken Boessenkool Date: May 29, 2020 Re: Supply-side shocks and the COVID economic recovery How should governments help the economy emerge from the COVID recession? Conventional responses are not designed for this – no amount of monetary or broad-based fiscal stimulus will open up middle seats on […] Stéphanie Lluis – Lessons From Employment Insurance For The Cerb
From: Stéphanie Lluis To: Canadians Concerned about the Labour Market Date: May 28, 2020 Re: Lessons from Employment Insurance for the CERB The Canada Emergency Response Benefit (CERB) was designed as an emergency measure to offset the income losses of millions of individuals following the COVID-19 outbreak. It has been effective in providing financial support to many individuals and […] Rodney Dobson – How To Get Governments Real-time Pay Information
From: Rodney Dobson To: Diane Lebouthillier, Minister of National Revenue Date: May 27, 2020 Re: How to Get Governments Real-time Pay Information Payroll information has never been more important, or fluid, than during the current pandemic. Managing the Canada Emergency Response Benefit (CERB) and the new wage subsidy program have underlined for Ottawa that it needs new […] Staggered Re-opening Should Inform Tailored Income Supports: Crisis Working Group on Household Income and Credit Support
May 26, 2020 – With re-opening strategies differing across the country, regional and industry variations need to be considered to create better-tailored income supports, says the C.D. Howe Institute’s Crisis Working Group on Household Income and Credit Support.
At their recent meeting, working group members discussed the need to apply a risk management lens to the re-opening of the economy and the need to shift away from a national one-size-fits-all income support plan. The group also considered policy options for modifying the Canada Emergency Response Benefit (CERB) while maintaining support for families and low-wage earners, and explored longer-term income support plans.
The group recommends:
A more targeted…How Ontario’s Reopening Is Managed Will Have Consequences Across The Country — It Needs A Clearer Plan – Financial Post Op-ed
Reopening locked-down economies is not easy. Because governments did the locking down, governments are key to the reopening. How Ontario’s government manages it, given the province’s demographic and economic weight, will have consequences across the country. Ontarians and Canadians could do better if Ontario followed the example of other jurisdictions and published a clearer and more comprehensive reopening plan.
Where can Ontario look for ideas? Its immediate Canadian neighbours, Manitoba and Quebec, are not very helpful examples. Manitoba reopened earlier but it never had a per capita caseload anything like Ontario’s. Quebec still has a worse caseload and had to backtrack on relatively aggressive early reopening plans when its…
Laurin, Dachis – An Income Support Plan To Support The Recovery
From: Alexandre Laurin and Benjamin Dachis To: Finance Minister Bill Morneau Date: May 25, 2020 Re: An Income Support Plan to Support the Recovery The first cohort of Canada Emergency Response Benefit (CERB) recipients are about to lose eligibility on July 5. Ottawa must announce soon what’s next. As the province-by-province restart begins, income support needs to shift […] Michael J. O’connor – Commercial Rent Part 3: Levelling The Playing Field
From: Michael J. O’Connor To: Bill Morneau, Minister of Finance Date: May 22, 2020 Re: Commercial Rent Part 3: Levelling the Playing Field Final details of the commercial rent relief program for small businesses announced in April emerged this week. That they arrived more than half-way into the eligibility period is just one signal that the Canada Emergency […] Kronick, Robson – Making Sure Zombie Firms Aren’t Propped Up Post-covid
From: Jeremy M. Kronick and William B.P. Robson To: Bill Morneau, Minister of Finance Date: May 21, 2020 Re: Making sure zombie firms aren’t propped up post-COVID COVID-19 has put much of Canada’s economy on life support. As we emerge from the crisis and resume more normal activity, a challenge awaits. We do not want viable businesses to […] Laurin, Dachis – A Stimulus Plan To Restart The Job Market
From: Alexandre Laurin and Benjamin Dachis To: Finance Minister Bill Morneau Date: May 20, 2020 Re: A stimulus plan to restart the job market As governments partially lift their restrictions and economic activity resumes, many more employees will soon be asked to return to work, and new work opportunities will arise for the unemployed. Many people may hesitate to […] Once the crisis is over, we will need to let the zombie firms go – Financial Post Op-Ed
COVID-19 has put much of Canada’s economy on life support. As we emerge from the crisis and resume more normal activity, a challenge awaits. We do not want viable businesses to disappear. But we also do not want zombie firms to live on indefinitely.
Early in the crisis, governments reasonably prioritized supporting households and businesses through central banks, government lenders and transfer payments. Going big and broad made sense to help us survive the sudden stop.
We now need to navigate a different problem: letting firms go. In an ordinary year an amazing number of businesses in Canada appear and disappear. In 2017, 143,000 businesses came into existence — about one for every eight that already existed. That…
Almos Tassonyi – From The Black Death To The Depression To Covid-19: Using Debt To Overcome The Municipal Fiscal Squeeze
From: Almos Tassonyi To: Municipal debt watchers Date: May 19, 2020 Re: From the Black Death to the Depression to COVID-19: Using Debt to Overcome the Municipal Fiscal Squeeze Despite the drumbeat of warnings of an imminent crisis in municipal fiscal ability to cope with the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic, the silence from the provinces has been […] Dwight Duncan on BNN – Financing bridge needed to protect at-risk sectors
Dwight Duncan, co-chair of the C.D. Howe Institute’s Crisis Working Group on Business Continuity and Trade, joins BNN Bloomberg to discuss the kind of government support needed for at-risk sectors amid the pandemic.