Puzzling Plans and Surprise Surpluses: Canada’s Cities Need More Transparent Budgets
Perplexing Budgets Overstate Financial Pain of Cities William B.P. Robson and Miles Wu look at the annual budgetary projections for spending and the bottom line in Canada’s 31 largest municipalities by population over a decade (2010 to 2019) and compare them to the results reported in those municipalities’ year-end financial statements. They find budget debate […] William B.P. Robson – Provincial Debts And Federal Bailouts: It’s Complicated
From: William B.P. Robson To: Canadian Debt Watchers Date: February 25, 2021 Re: Provincial Debts and Federal Bailouts – It’s Complicated When COVID-19 crashed the economy last spring, Canadian governments ramped up borrowing so much that concern spiked about fiscally weaker provinces finding buyers for their debt. The Bank of Canada saw off that crisis by including provincial […] Paul Jenkins – Laurentian University: Governance Is A Good Part Of The Answer
From: Paul Jenkins To: Postsecondary Education Sector Date: February 16, 2021 Subject: Laurentian University—Governance is a Good Part of the Answer Ontario universities are facing myriad challenges. Shifting societal demands, rapidly changing industries in response to technological disruptions, increasing budget pressures, and, of course, COVID-19. All this – and more – conspire to create an […] Robson, Wu – It’s the End of January. Do You Know Where Your City’s Budget Is?
From: William B.P. Robson and Miles Wu To: Municipal Councillors and Ratepayers Date: February 1, 2021 Re: It’s the End of January – Do You Know Where Your City’s Budget Is? Municipal budgets produce some of the most frustrating failures of accountability among Canadian governments. Municipalities are the level of government that matters most in […] Don Drummond – Should $70 To $100 Billion Of Fiscal Stimulus Be Used, And On What?
From: Don Drummond To: Finance Minister Chrystia Freeland Date: January 26, 2021 Re: Should $70 to $100 Billion of Fiscal Stimulus Be Used, and on What? Ottawa’s Fall Fiscal Statement set aside $70 to $100 billion through 2023-24 for possible fiscal stimulus to “build a stronger, more inclusive, more innovative and more resilient economy.” Careful reflection is needed […] Time for an Upgrade: Fiscal Accountability in Canada’s Cities, 2020
Outdated practices make the budgets of too many Canadian cities impossible for non-experts to understand. In this report, authors William B.P. Robson and Miles Wu grade the clarity, comprehensiveness, and timeliness of the financial presentations of 31 major Canadian municipalities, based on their most recent budgets and financial statements, and prescribe some simple fixes to […] Municipal Fiscal Transparency Scorecard, 2020
In the C.D. Howe Institute’s 2020 annual report card we grade the clarity, comprehensiveness, and timeliness of the financial presentations of 31 major Canadian municipalities, based on their most recent budgets and financial statements. Of those 31, Edmonton and London earn Fs, failing to meet a minimal standard of transparency, usefulness and timeliness. Vancouver […] William B.P. Robson – Let’s Drop The ‘We Can’t Go Back’ Post-covid Fantasies
From: William B.P. Robson To: Canadians Contemplating 2021 Date: January 5, 2021 Re: Let’s Drop the ‘We Can’t Go Back’ Post-COVID Fantasies Of all the COVID-inspired clichés of 2020, “we can’t go back to how we were before” gets my vote for most trying. Taken literally, it is empty. We can’t undo the deaths, restore students’ lost instruction, […] 2020 Hindsight – William Robson: Our Year Of Magical Thinking – Financial Post Op-ed
Of all the COVID-inspired clichés of 2020, “we can’t go back to how we were before” gets my vote for most trying.
Taken literally, it is empty. We can’t undo the deaths, restore students’ lost instruction, give young people the first jobs they didn’t get, erase the huge debts, enjoy the travel and human contact that didn’t happen. No, we can’t go back to 2019 — which is too bad.
Taken as an exhortation — “we shouldn’t go back to how we were before” — it is too often a prelude to magical thinking, a great leap to some environmental, economic or political nirvana previously out of reach. That is silly. A sick person who was never an athlete can dream of completing a triathlon. But their first task is to recover. In the same…
Laurin, Robson – Under The Rug: Pitfalls Abound In Reporting Federal Employee Pension Obligations
From: Alexandre Laurin and William B.P. Robson To: Finance Minister Chrystia Freeland Date: December 3, 2020 Re: Under the Rug: Pitfalls Abound in Reporting Federal Employee Pension Obligations The federal government’s fall economic update included some unfamiliar lines in its fiscal projections. Its Summary Statement of Transactions presented totals for the federal government’s expenses and the budget balance […] Bill Robson on BNN – I would like to see a five-year track: C.D. Howe CEO on fiscal update
Bill Robson, CEO of the C.D. Howe Institute talks about his expectations for the fiscal update and wanting to at least see where the federal government sees revenues and spending projections for the coming years, even amid COVID-19 uncertainty.
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 […]