From: Trevor Tombe To: Deficit observers Date: August 1, 2025Re: Confronting Canada’s Fiscal Future Canada’s pledge to spend 5 percent of GDP on defence, if acted upon, will come with potentially large fiscal costs. Following through will require either sustained deficits, tax increases, or difficult reductions in other areas of federal spending. More likely, it […]
Published in Financial Post By John Lester and Alex Laurin The federal government has promised a spending review aimed at limiting the growth in its operating spending, also known as direct program expenses, to two per cent a year. With the new NATO commitment to increase defence-related spending by over $100 billion a year by 2035, restraining non-defence […]
June 26, 2025 – Canadian auto insurance rate regulations, intended to protect consumers, are reducing necessary insurer agility – risking long-term competitiveness in the market, according to a new report from the C.D. Howe Institute. In “The Price of Over-Regulation: Assessing the Impact of Rate Controls on Auto Insurance Market Flexibility in Canada,” Gherardo Caracciolo finds […]
From: Nicholas Chesterley To: Prosperity watchers Date: June 20, 2025Re: Measure Everything That Matters, not Just GDP Discussions of national performance by governments, the media, and the public often focus on GDP, how much a country has produced in a year. They spend less time on national wealth – the total value of our national […]
From: William B.P. Robson and Nick DahirTo: Municipal spending observersDate: June 19, 2025Re: Let’s Get Off the Chronic Municipal Budget Crisis Carousel An annual Canadian ritual starting just after New Year’s is the panic over municipal budgets. Concerns about deficits and consequent spending cuts and tax increases dominate the headlines – “Torontonians face property tax hike!” “Vancouver overspending on policing!” […]
From: Erik De Lorenzi To: Postal observersDate: June 18, 2025Re: A Way Forward: Canada Post Deregulation and Commercialization (II) Yesterday, we outlined the sorry history that has led to Canada Post’s major financial – $4 billion and counting – and operational strain.   To better serve consumers and improve the effectiveness of federal spending, […]
From: Erik De Lorenzi To: Postal observersDate: June 17, 2025Re: A Way Forward: Canada Post Deregulation and Commercialization Canada Post is under major financial and operational strain. Mail volumes are declining, its market share in parcel delivery is evaporating and it lost another $840 million last year, which taxpayers have had to cover. Meanwhile, it […]
From: Ian IrvineTo: Canadians Concerned About VapingDate: June 9, 2025Re: Governments Continue Their War Against Our Best Anti-Smoking Tool In Ode to a Nightingale, John Keats described how “but to think is to be full of sorrow/And leaden-eyed despairs.” Such pervasive, perpetual gloominess sounds exactly like Canadian health lobby groups contemplating the latest statistics on smoking, which are, […]
To: Fiscally responsible members of Parliament From: Colin Busby, Nicholas Dahir and William B.P. RobsonDate: June 4, 2025Re: Excuses for Federal Budget Delay Get Thinner By the Day Last week’s Speech from the Throne delivered by King Charles III will be remembered as an anomaly, and not just because of the speaker. Here’s how it usually […]
To: Fiscal observersFrom: Don Drummond and William B.P. RobsonDate: June 2, 2025Re: Don’t Wait for Fall, Give Us a Budget Now Prime Minister Mark Carney has said his government will present a budget this fall. That is better than Finance Minister François-Philippe Champagne’s earlier announcement that there would be no budget in 2025. But the fall will be too late. Before […]
The federal government’s decision not to present a budget this spring continues a troubling trend of late or absent federal budgets. Since 1994, the government has presented five budgets after the fiscal year began. Four of those late budgets appeared in the past decade. The government presented no budget at all in 2020. Presenting a budget late or never undermines transparency and […]
Published in The Globe and Mail. The Speech from the Throne delivered by King Charles III on Tuesday will be remembered as an anomaly, and not just because of the speaker. Here’s how it usually goes: A Throne Speech opens a legislative session, laying out the government’s priorities. Then, at the start of that legislative session, the […]
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From: Trevor Tombe To: Deficit observers Date: August 1, 2025Re: Confronting Canada’s Fiscal Future Canada’s pledge to spend 5 percent of GDP on defence, if acted upon, will come with potentially large fiscal costs. Following through will require either sustained deficits, tax increases, or difficult reductions in other areas of federal spending. More likely, it […] 
Published in Financial Post By John Lester and Alex Laurin The federal government has promised a spending review aimed at limiting the growth in its operating spending, also known as direct program expenses, to two per cent a year. With the new NATO commitment to increase defence-related spending by over $100 billion a year by 2035, restraining non-defence […] 
From: Nicholas Chesterley To: Prosperity watchers Date: June 20, 2025Re: Measure Everything That Matters, not Just GDP Discussions of national performance by governments, the media, and the public often focus on GDP, how much a country has produced in a year. They spend less time on national wealth – the total value of our national […] 
From: William B.P. Robson and Nick DahirTo: Municipal spending observersDate: June 19, 2025Re: Let’s Get Off the Chronic Municipal Budget Crisis Carousel An annual Canadian ritual starting just after New Year’s is the panic over municipal budgets. Concerns about deficits and consequent spending cuts and tax increases dominate the headlines – “Torontonians face property tax hike!” “Vancouver overspending on policing!” […] 
From: Erik De Lorenzi To: Postal observersDate: June 18, 2025Re: A Way Forward: Canada Post Deregulation and Commercialization (II) Yesterday, we outlined the sorry history that has led to Canada Post’s major financial – $4 billion and counting – and operational strain.   To better serve consumers and improve the effectiveness of federal spending, […] 
From: Erik De Lorenzi To: Postal observersDate: June 17, 2025Re: A Way Forward: Canada Post Deregulation and Commercialization Canada Post is under major financial and operational strain. Mail volumes are declining, its market share in parcel delivery is evaporating and it lost another $840 million last year, which taxpayers have had to cover. Meanwhile, it […] 
From: Ian IrvineTo: Canadians Concerned About VapingDate: June 9, 2025Re: Governments Continue Their War Against Our Best Anti-Smoking Tool In Ode to a Nightingale, John Keats described how “but to think is to be full of sorrow/And leaden-eyed despairs.” Such pervasive, perpetual gloominess sounds exactly like Canadian health lobby groups contemplating the latest statistics on smoking, which are, […] 
To: Fiscally responsible members of Parliament From: Colin Busby, Nicholas Dahir and William B.P. RobsonDate: June 4, 2025Re: Excuses for Federal Budget Delay Get Thinner By the Day Last week’s Speech from the Throne delivered by King Charles III will be remembered as an anomaly, and not just because of the speaker. Here’s how it usually […] 
To: Fiscal observersFrom: Don Drummond and William B.P. RobsonDate: June 2, 2025Re: Don’t Wait for Fall, Give Us a Budget Now Prime Minister Mark Carney has said his government will present a budget this fall. That is better than Finance Minister François-Philippe Champagne’s earlier announcement that there would be no budget in 2025. But the fall will be too late. Before […] 
The federal government’s decision not to present a budget this spring continues a troubling trend of late or absent federal budgets. Since 1994, the government has presented five budgets after the fiscal year began. Four of those late budgets appeared in the past decade. The government presented no budget at all in 2020. Presenting a budget late or never undermines transparency and […] 
Published in The Globe and Mail. The Speech from the Throne delivered by King Charles III on Tuesday will be remembered as an anomaly, and not just because of the speaker. Here’s how it usually goes: A Throne Speech opens a legislative session, laying out the government’s priorities. Then, at the start of that legislative session, the […]