Lawrence Herman – Business Needs to Help Push Global Trade Referee Back into the Game
To: Canadian businesses From: Lawrence Herman Date: February 27, 2024 Re: Business Needs to Help Push Global Trade Referee Back into the Game The World Trade Organization is not top of mind for the business community. But it should be. The WTO’s current diminished state affects international commerce generally. Without universally respected rules, uncertainty prevails, and uncertainty raises costs. […]We must do away with ‘zombie governance’ in the corporate world – Globe and Mail
In the book Zombie Economics, John Quiggin explained how dead ideas – assumptions about market economics refuted by the 2008-09 financial crisis – live on in the minds of many people, including those charged with cleaning up the mess. While not supported by evidence or analysis, these narratives persist as “dead ideas that still walk among us.” Why? Largely because they advance the interests of particular (typically elite) groups who want to believe in them and make them true.
Likewise, corporate governance best practices are typically based on intuition, opinion and rhetoric. Such thinking has been elevated – mandated by regulators and rated by a burgeoning class of governance experts for whom such standards become self-…
Brian Lewis – Practical Advice for the Ontario Infrastructure Bank
From: Brian Lewis To: Ontario taxpayers, infrastructure policy makers and investors Date: February 26, 2024 Re: Practical Advice for the Ontario Infrastructure Bank The provincial government recently announced the creation of an Ontario Infrastructure Bank to help build more infrastructure faster while lowering taxpayer costs. The new bank would do this by leveraging private sector capital and expertise […] Mahboubi, Robson – Please Don’t Leave: Retaining Immigrant (and All) Talent
From: Parisa Mahboubi and William B.P. Robson To: Canadian human capital watchers Date: February 23, 2024 Re: Please Don’t Leave: Retaining Immigrant (and All) Talent Surging immigration numbers are top-of-mind for Canadians. But as we reconsider targets for newcomers and address pain points such as housing, we also need to pay attention to talent retention. Tens of thousands […] Quality Over Quantity: How Canada’s Immigration System Can Catch Up With Its Competitors
Canada’s immigration point system is designed to select skilled immigrants who have the potential to contribute to the country’s economic growth and meet its evolving skills needs. However, Canada faces challenges in fully leveraging increased immigration levels to enhance the well-being of Canadians due to weaknesses in capital investment and a quantity/quality trade-off in […] Lawrence L. Herman – Defence Laggards Lose Their Place at the Table
To: Concerned Canadians From: Lawrence Herman Date: February 22, 2024 Re: Defence Laggards Lose Their Place at the Table Canada is a trading nation. Trade keeps the economy working, vital to the well-being of every Canadian. Securing and maintaining the country’s trade is thus one of the federal government’s topmost responsibilities, requiring skill, determination and a strategic focus on […]Canada Needs to Revamp Immigration Policy to Compete with Peers
February 22, 2024 – Canada’s recent changes to its immigration policies are making this country less competitive and successful in selecting top talent, a new study from the C.D. Howe Institute indicates. We need to re-develop immigration policies…How we measure housing costs helps explain inflation’s stubbornness – Financial Post
News that Canada’s inflation rate fell in January has prompted fresh debate about cuts in the Bank of Canada’s policy interest rate, which has been at five per cent since last July. Though the year-over-year increase in the CPI was just 2.9 per cent in January, which is getting nearer the two per cent target, many observers expect the Bank will keep interest rates where they are at its next announcement in April. Why the caution?
Partly because we’ve been here before: the CPI dropped below three per cent last spring, then sprang back up. And also because, despite January’s encouraging headline number, measures of core inflation are still well above three per cent.
There is a straightforward reason for…
Must Canada leave a mountain of debt to future generations? – Globe and Mail
The 2023 fall economic statement projected large deficits through 2028-29 and a net debt-to-GDP ratio that rises in 2024-25 and then declines only slightly, remaining well above the prepandemic level through 2028-29. Interest payments eat up almost 14 per cent of revenue. The 2024 budget must correct this imprudent treatment of risk.
Debt’s risk is lost opportunity. When servicing costs rise, more tax dollars have to go toward financing the debt, leaving less room for more meaningful expenditure.
The federal government justified the deficits and debt by showing the net debt-to-GDP ratio declining through 2055-56. This is not credible.
First, high debt produces economic costs, even if sustainable under the narrow…
Zayna Khayat – Some Demand-Side Ambition, Please, for Canada’s Health Workforce
From: Zayna Khayat To: Healthcare watchers Date: February 21, 2024 Re: Some Demand-Side Ambition, Please, for Canada’s Health Workforce The gap between demand for health services and available supply is large and widening. The sector is dominated by labour; according to Canadian Institute for Health Information (CIHI), more than 60 percent of health spending goes to workers. Hence, stability […] Shadow Budget 2024 with Bill Robson and Don Drummond
Raise the GST and luxury taxes. Balance the budget. End Supply Management for the dairy industry. In the C.D. Howe Institute’s Shadow Budget 2024, Bill Robson and Don Drummond warn that we’ll suffer more later if we don’t take the fiscal medicine now.
Jeremy M. Kronick – The Unintended Consequences of Ottawa’s 35-percent Interest Rate Cap
From: Jeremy M. Kronick To: Finance Minister Minister Chrystia Freeland Date: February 20, 2024 Re: The Unintended Consequences of Ottawa’s 35-percent Interest Rate Cap Ottawa has set its sights on reining in predatory lending rates. Last year it set out draft regulations that would lower the rate non-prime lenders can charge from 48 to 35 percent […]