Ontario’s Financial Future: Leading the Charge for a Competitive and Modernized Regulatory Framework
From: Harvey NaglieTo: Financial regulation observers Date: March 6, 2025Re: Ontario’s Financial Future: Leading the Charge for a Competitive and Modernized Regulatory Framework Ontario faces a pivotal moment. As Canada’s financial capital, it has long benefited from a stable financial sector. However, the evolving global landscape demands more than stability – it requires bold leadership. […] Greenwashing Provision Has No Place in New Competition Act
From: John PecmanTo: Competition policy watchersDate: March 4, 2025Re: Greenwashing Provision Has No Place in New Competition Act Bill C-59, the last of three recent rounds of amendments to the Competition Act that strengthened Canada’s ability to tackle anti-competitive and deceptive marketing practices, contained a problematic “greenwashing” provision. That provision expanded previous prohibitions of misrepresentations about products and […] Ryan Manucha on CBC News: Tariff Threats and Inter-provincial Trade Barriers
C.D. Howe Institute Research Fellow Ryan Manucha speaks to Andrew Nichols of CBC News about how President Donald Trump’s threats to levy high tariffs on Canadian goods has brought renewed attention to the trade barriers between provinces that hinder Canada’s economic growth. Lawrence Herman – Supply management’s days may be numbered. Good!
Published in the Financial Post.
Just when the Americans have elected an aggressive president and just before the Canada-U.S.-Mexico Agreement (the old NAFTA) is due for re-negotiation, the Liberal government, with all-party agreement, supports an egregiously protectionist piece of legislation that will only make Canada’s political problems with the Trump administration that much worse.
As a self-inflicted injury, little surpasses Bill C-282, a Bloc Québécois member’s private bill that sailed through the House of Commons last year. The bill, helped along by the well-financed dairy lobby, would embed Canada’s supply management system in law, prohibiting any trade agreement from allowing as much as one additional gram…
Charles DeLand – Inhibiting Investment: Don’t Let the Oil and Gas Emissions Cap Limit Canada’s Prosperity
To: Energy and Natural Resources Minister Jonathan Wilkinson and Environment and Climate Change Minister Steven GuilbeaultFrom: Charles DeLandDate: November 12, 2024Re: Inhibiting Investment: Don’t Let the Oil and Gas Emissions Cap Limit Canada’s Prosperity Ottawa’s latest climate initiative – a cap on oil and gas emissions – is like bringing an excavator to plant flowers. […] Charles Eagan – A Path to Trusted AI
From: Charles EaganTo: AI observersDate: November 11, 2024 Re: A Path to Trusted AI Artificial Intelligence (AI) has infiltrated our lives for decades, but since the public launch of ChatGPT showcasing generative AI in 2022, society has faced unprecedented technological evolution. With digital technology already a constant part of our lives, AI has the potential to […] Mark Zelmer – Banking is changing. Bank regulators need to adapt
Published in the Financial Post
Canada has not had a bank failure in over 30 years. But banking is changing, and so bank regulation may need to change, too.
Bank runs can now cripple an institution in a matter of hours, not days. Deposit insurance can no longer be counted on to prevent such runs. And a very different regulatory environment has emerged in the wake of the global financial crisis. Last year’s sudden collapse of Silicon Valley Bank in the U.S. and slower demise of Credit Suisse in Switzerland are examples of crises Canadian regulators might struggle to cope with if something similar happened here.
As banking evolves away from the system that existed in the last century, the risk of bank runs is likely to…
Colin Busby – Bill C-59: Is Canada Setting Back Sustainable Investment Opportunities for Green Investors and Pension Funds?
From: Colin Busby To: Investment watchers Date: October 17, 2024 Re: Bill C-59: Is Canada Setting Back Sustainable Investment Opportunities for Green Investors and Pension Funds? Canadian policymakers aim to attract more investment, especially from large international and domestic pension funds. These investors pursue opportunities globally, and competition is fierce. They seek the best returns that consider various risks, […] Lawrence Herman – Don’t Let the Dairy Farmers Win Again
From: Lawrence Herman To: Trade observers Date: October 10, 2024 Re: Don’t Let the Dairy Farmers Win Again There’s something wrong when a narrow interest group can dominate Canadian trade policy. That’s exactly what has happened in the case of the dairy industry, pushing its protectionist agenda on Canadians, getting an ill-considered and self-serving piece of legislation, Bill C-282, […] Lawrence Herman – Behold dairy lobby’s power, as Bloc holds Liberals hostage over supply management
Published in the Globe and Mail.
There’s something wrong when a narrow interest group can dominate Canadian trade policy. That’s exactly what has happened in the case of the dairy industry, pushing its protectionist agenda on Canadians, not only in getting an ill-considered and self-serving piece of legislation to sail through the House of Commons but in having the Bloc Québécois make final enactment of Bill C-282 a red line for supporting the minority Trudeau government.
Bill C-282 is a Bloc private member’s bill that would exempt the supply managed dairy sector (as well as poultry and eggs) from all future trade negotiations. Even though the bill has already passed the House and is now in the Senate, Bloc Leader Yves-…
Graph of the Week: Canadian AI VC Investments Surpass $12.5B, Led by Finance, IT, and Business Services
Graph of the Week is a new series from the C.D. Howe Institute’s Graphic Intelligence that presents valuable and easily digestible data. Each Monday we unveil one new captivating chart or graph with interesting insights, explaining it in two-to-three sentences. Dive into the data with us.Over the past six years, more than US$12.5 billion in […] David Jones – There’s Method to the Dynamic Pricing Madness
From: David Jones To: François-Philippe Champagne, Minister of Innovation, Science and Industry of Canada Date: September 27, 2024 Re: There’s Method to the Dynamic Pricing Madness Earlier this month, in response to huge demand, ticket prices surged for the 1990s Britpop band Oasis’s long-awaited reunion tour across Britain and Ireland. Dynamic pricing –allowing prices to […]