November 15, 2023: Domestic Stability Buffer Council Recommends Holding Buffer at 3.5 Percent at Inaugural Meeting

At its inaugural meeting, the C.D. Howe Institute’s Domestic Stability Buffer Council (DSBC) recommended that the Office of the Superintendent of Financial Institutions (OSFI) maintain its Domestic Stability Buffer (DSB) at 3.5 percent at its next setting in December.

The DSBC provides OSFI, industry participants, and key economic policy voices with an independent assessment of the appropriate size of the buffer in pursuit of OSFI’s mandate of contributing to public confidence in the Canadian financial system. The Council consists of Vivian Abdelmessih, Cathy Cranston, Jamey Hubbs, Peter Levitt, Duncan Munn, Mark Zelmer, and Jeremy Kronick who is Chair. Council members make recommendations for OSFI’s upcoming DSB…

Grant Bishop – Ottawa Needs to Get Back to Carbon Pricing Basics

Rise, Stall, or Fall: The Key Drivers Behind Inflation’s Path in Canada

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We need to clarify the CPP’s exit rules – Financial Post

Many commentators, including the prime minister and leader of the opposition, have now weighed in on the downsides of Alberta withdrawing from the Canada Pension Plan (CPP) and creating its own Alberta Pension Plan (APP). The Alberta proposal puts at risk a plan that has been providing secure retirement, survivor and disability benefits for nearly 60 years.

Much of the criticism and concern revolves around the $334 billion that a report prepared by the actuarial firm LifeWorks for the government of Alberta says the province should claim in compensation for assuming responsibility for paying the future benefits Albertans earned while their province was part of the CPP. The amount is 53 per cent of CPP’s current…

Alberta’s case for taking half CPP’s assets – Financial Post

Since the release of the Alberta Pension Plan report, I’ve read with interest the steady stream of commentary and opinion and, while there have been some thoughtful pieces, much of it has been ill-informed and misleading.

Doubt has been cast on the credibility of the firm that researched and delivered the report. Questions have been raised about the relevance of the formula used to calculate the transfer amount. And there seems to be general disbelief that a province with only 12 per cent of the nation’s population could have title to 53 per cent of the assets of the Canada Pension Plan (CPP).

Albertans will only be able to properly weigh the risks and opportunities of an Alberta Pension Plan (APP) when these…

C.D. Howe Institute receives large gift from Board Chairman Hugh L. MacKinnon to support advancement of research in financial and monetary policy

William B.P. Robson – Retirement Savers Should Face No Offshore Investment Limits

Supply Side Factors are Driving Remaining Inflation in Canada

November 15 – Trevor Tombe, professor of economics at the University of Calgary, and a co-author of a new C.D. Howe Institute report on key drivers of inflation in Canada, tells BNN Bloomberg that the drop in inflation over the past year was driven by falling energy prices. He says persisting inflation is being led by supply side factors such as pricing strategies, production costs and supply chain problems, and that the Bank of Canada may have to continue its tight monetary stance to counter the upward push of these factors against the downward push on demand created by its interest rate hikes. He also says wages and labour costs have not been significant contributors to either inflation’s rise or fall.

Higher immigration without business investment lowers Canadian living standards – Globe and Mail

Immigration is driving a historic surge in Canada’s population. At the same time, Canadian wages and living standards are stagnant. That is a bad combination – and, worse, it is not a coincidence. And here’s the link: Business investment is so weak that the stock of productive capital per worker in Canada – the buildings, tools and software they use – is falling. More workers and less capital are putting Canada on a path to a low-productivity, low-wage economy.

Polls show that most Canadians think of immigration as a driver of economic progress. Until recently, that belief was well founded. Immigrants earn less than Canadian-born contemporaries when they first arrive – so, crunching the numbers, recent arrivals…

Rosner, Zelikovitz – Let’s Loosen the Barriers to Private Competition Complaints

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