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
To: Competition Tribunal and Members of the Bar From: David Rosner and Josh Zelikovitz Date: November 9, 2023 Re: Let’s Loosen the Barriers to Private Competition Complaints In June 2022, the Competition Act was amended to permit private applications alleging abuse of dominance. Despite the reform, there has been no flood of litigation; instead, only […] Don’t limit Canadian investors’ access to foreign assets – Financial Post Op-Ed
Is the federal government thinking of limiting the foreign assets Canadians can own through their pension plans and RRSPs? Rumours to that effect are spreading among Canada’s pension plans and investors.
The rumours are plausible. As a recent C.D. Howe Institute report documents, business investment in this country has been so weak that capital per worker has actually been falling. That deadens productivity growth, which causes living standards to stagnate. A government that puts populist intervention ahead of principled economic policies, as this one often does, might want to force Canadian savers to invest more in Canadian assets.
How might it do so? Pension funds and other institutional investors have a…
William Robson on Taking Stock with Amanda Lang
Working Harder for Less: More People but Less Capital Is No Recipe for Prosperity
Business investment in Canada has been so weak since 2015 that capital per worker has been falling – part of an ominous pattern of stagnating productivity and living standards. A longstanding gap between investment per available worker in Canada compared to the United States and other OECD countries narrowed from the late 1990s through […] Falling Fast: Canada’s Dangerous Slide in Business Investment
November 7 – Weak business investment in Canada poses a profound threat to Canadian living standards and competitiveness, says a new report from the C.D. Howe Institute. In “…Pharmacare Back on The Radar Canada’s Need for Federal Provincial Cooperation October 26th, 2023
Grant Sprague – The Supreme Court Was Clear: Governments Need to Align on Green Agenda
From: Grant Sprague To: Canada’s governments Date: November 6, 2023 Re: The Supreme Court Was Clear: Governments Need to Align on Green Agenda Four years ago, the federal government enacted the Impact Assessment Act (IAA), also known as Bill C-69. The reception was not good. In some circles, the legislation became known as the “no-more […] Verbatim: National Pharmacare – Time to Get on With It
A presentation to “Pharmacare Back on The Radar: Canada’s Need for Federal-Provincial Cooperation,” a C.D. Howe Institute webinar held on October 26, 2023. Marcel Saulnier is a health policy consultant, Associate with Santis Health and a former Associate Assistant Deputy Minister of the Strategic Policy Branch at Health Canada. He was also Executive Director responsible […] How to Get National Pharmacare Back on Track
National pharmacare for Canada needs to get back on track, according to a former Health Canada official speaking at a recent C.D. Howe Institute event. In “National Pharmacare – Time to Get on With It,” Marcel Saulnier examines progress on implementing improved coverage…Why are Canadian governments so slow to release budgets and public accounts? – Globe and Mail
Nicholas Dahir is a research assistant at the C.D. Howe Institute. William Robson is chief executive of the C.D. Howe Institute.
Among the most grating and persistent failings of our governments is that they are too slow. Too slow building things, too slow issuing permits and passports, too slow processing taxes, too slow even answering questions.
Less obvious in our daily lives, but troubling on a deeper level, is how late Canada’s federal, provincial and territorial governments are in presenting their budgets and public accounts. The C.D. Howe Institute recently released its annual report card on the clarity, reliability and timeliness of these documents. Our findings on timeliness alone reveal major problems…