How will Canada’s new Defence Investment Agency strengthen our sovereignty? Canada’s top soldier, General Jennie Carignan, on the Arctic, a 400,000-strong civil defence force, and whether purchasing F-35 fighter jets from a key ally remains in Canada’s best interests.
Published in Financial Post. Even as the gap widens between feeble capital investment in Canada and surging investment in the United States, so does the gap between the Carney government’s hype about investing for prosperity and its actual pursuit of debt-fuelled consumption. Last week, it announced its latest response to affordability concerns: the Canada Groceries […]
February 5, 2026 – Canada faces urgent economic, geopolitical, and climate pressures, and is seeking to accelerate approvals for major projects. However, without a clear, evidence-based method to assess and rank project proposals, the country risks delaying investments essential to economic security, clean growth, and Indigenous Reconciliation, according to a new report by the C.D. […]
by David Jones and Tasnim Fariha Canada’s Building Canada Act gives the federal government broad discretion to designate projects as being in the national interest but provides limited guidance on how such decisions should be made. This paper develops a rigorous, evidence-based methodology to support more transparent and consistent major project assessments by the Major Projects […]
From: David JonesTo: Major project watchersDate: January 12, 2026Re: The Canadian Curse: Execution Falters in Face of Uncertainty Canada talks a lot about nation-building. We talk about clean energy, critical minerals, trade corridors, and productivity. We talk about seizing opportunities created by global instability and reshoring supply chains. What we do far less effectively is […]
From: Tasnim Fariha and David JonesTo: Infrastructure watchersDate: December 18, 2025Re: High-Speed Rail Can’t Arrive Fast Enough Canada’s Toronto-Quebec City rail corridor was built for a different era – one far less crowded and connected than today. More than a century of population growth, economic expansion, and rising transport demand have placed a strain on […]
Published in The Hill Times. Canada’s Toronto-Quebec City rail corridor was built for a different era—one far less crowded and connected than today. Decades of population growth, economic expansion, and rising transport demand have placed a strain on this aging infrastructure, prompting renewed debate over high-speed rail. Existing congestion on the Via Rail line—with on-time […]
Canada needs new infrastructure fast – but major projects still take years or decades. Why? Host Michael Hainsworth speaks with economist David Jones about what’s slowing us down and how projects under the Building Canada Act could speed things up.
Canada needs new infrastructure fast – but major projects still take years or decades. Why? Host Michael Hainsworth speaks with economist David Jones about what’s slowing us down and how projects under the Building Canada Act could speed things up.
Since 2022, real general government gross fixed capital formation has been rising steadily, and with the new measures announced in the federal government’s 2025 budget, it will likely continue increasing. Real business investment, however, has been moving in the opposite direction. While more government investment in areas such as defence and infrastructure can support growth […]
From: Don Drummond and Nicholas Dahir To: Defence spending observersDate: December 1, 2025Re: Something Big Happened to Defence in the Budget: What it is isn’t exactly clear A few defence matters were made clear in the last month’s federal budget. First, the injection of new funding is very large. Second, the incremental money still leaves […]
Published in The Hub. Slogging through the 493 pages of the federal government’s November 4th, 2025, budget reveals the pre-release hype about transformational change to have been just that: hype. Start with the bloated page count. Like its predecessors, the budget buries the key numbers in hundreds of pages of repetition, reannouncements, and condescending political […]
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How will Canada’s new Defence Investment Agency strengthen our sovereignty? Canada’s top soldier, General Jennie Carignan, on the Arctic, a 400,000-strong civil defence force, and whether purchasing F-35 fighter jets from a key ally remains in Canada’s best interests. 
Published in Financial Post. Even as the gap widens between feeble capital investment in Canada and surging investment in the United States, so does the gap between the Carney government’s hype about investing for prosperity and its actual pursuit of debt-fuelled consumption. Last week, it announced its latest response to affordability concerns: the Canada Groceries […] 
by David Jones and Tasnim Fariha Canada’s Building Canada Act gives the federal government broad discretion to designate projects as being in the national interest but provides limited guidance on how such decisions should be made. This paper develops a rigorous, evidence-based methodology to support more transparent and consistent major project assessments by the Major Projects […] 
From: David JonesTo: Major project watchersDate: January 12, 2026Re: The Canadian Curse: Execution Falters in Face of Uncertainty Canada talks a lot about nation-building. We talk about clean energy, critical minerals, trade corridors, and productivity. We talk about seizing opportunities created by global instability and reshoring supply chains. What we do far less effectively is […] 
From: Tasnim Fariha and David JonesTo: Infrastructure watchersDate: December 18, 2025Re: High-Speed Rail Can’t Arrive Fast Enough Canada’s Toronto-Quebec City rail corridor was built for a different era – one far less crowded and connected than today. More than a century of population growth, economic expansion, and rising transport demand have placed a strain on […] 
Published in The Hill Times. Canada’s Toronto-Quebec City rail corridor was built for a different era—one far less crowded and connected than today. Decades of population growth, economic expansion, and rising transport demand have placed a strain on this aging infrastructure, prompting renewed debate over high-speed rail. Existing congestion on the Via Rail line—with on-time […] 
Since 2022, real general government gross fixed capital formation has been rising steadily, and with the new measures announced in the federal government’s 2025 budget, it will likely continue increasing. Real business investment, however, has been moving in the opposite direction. While more government investment in areas such as defence and infrastructure can support growth […] 
From: Don Drummond and Nicholas Dahir To: Defence spending observersDate: December 1, 2025Re: Something Big Happened to Defence in the Budget: What it is isn’t exactly clear A few defence matters were made clear in the last month’s federal budget. First, the injection of new funding is very large. Second, the incremental money still leaves […] 
Published in The Hub. Slogging through the 493 pages of the federal government’s November 4th, 2025, budget reveals the pre-release hype about transformational change to have been just that: hype. Start with the bloated page count. Like its predecessors, the budget buries the key numbers in hundreds of pages of repetition, reannouncements, and condescending political […]