Les jumeaux planétaires – La Presse Op-Ed
Le climat et sa sœur, la biodiversité, sont des jumeaux qu’on n’aurait pas dû séparer à la naissance.
À la COP15 de Montréal, on se penche sur le cas de la petite, aussi grave mais autrement plus compliqué que celui de son frère, traité le mois dernier à la COP27, à Charm el-Cheikh. Les savants docteurs ont intérêt à travailler ensemble, car ces enjeux sont intimement liés.
Le réchauffement climatique réduit la biodiversité et vice versa. Un exemple : le réchauffement étend les déserts et le recul de la végétation réduit le captage naturel du carbone, qui s’échappe dans l’atmosphère et empire le réchauffement.
Heureusement, ce qui est bon pour l’un l’est aussi pour l’autre. On estime que des solutions axées sur…
Zhang, Wyonch – The Prescription Drug Gaps in Canada
To: Canadians Concerned About Pharmaceutical Access From: Tingting Zhang and Rosalie Wyonch Date: December 12, 2022 Re: The Prescription Drug Gaps in Canada A significant number of Canadians do not have adequate access to prescription drugs. Twenty one percent of adults surveyed in a new Statistics Canada report said they had no prescription drug coverage […] Promises, promises: Bank of Canada gets its communications right – Globe and Mail Op-Ed
Last week, the Bank of Canada raised its policy interest rate by 50 basis points, to 4.25 per cent, in line with market expectations of either a 25- or 50-basis-point increase. No surprises there.
The real news was the change in the tone brought by the announcement. Of late, the bank has repeatedly warned Canadians that more rate hikes were coming. Now, further tightening will “depend on the data.”
We think this is a welcome development – and not just because it means the potential end of the tightening cycle, but because the bank gives itself more wiggle room in a very uncertain environment.
More definite statements can be problematic. Back in the second half of 2020, with the overnight rate at its lower bound, the…
Andrew Sancton – Putting a Lid on Development Charges
From: Andrew Sancton To: Canadian Housing Watchers Date: December 9, 2022 Re: Putting a Lid on Development Charges “Growth should pay for growth.” This slogan – the common justification for development charges – is rarely challenged in municipal circles. Development charges evolved from post-1945 subdivision agreements and were initially accepted by most developers as a mechanism for enhancing the […]William R. White – People Get Ready: An Era of Shortages Is Going to Replace Our Era of Plenty
From: William R. White To: Finance Minister Chrystia Freeland Date: December 8, 2022 Re: People Get Ready: An Era of Shortages Is Going to Replace Our Era of Plenty Is inflation decelerating? Will the Bank of Canada soon be able to moderate further tightening and eventually pivot towards easing rates? Will your ministerial life be […]Randy Bauslaugh – Let’s Fix Bill C-228 Before It’s Too Late
From: Randy Bauslaugh To: Members of the Senate Date: December 7, 2022 Re: Let’s Fix Bill C-228 Before It’s Too Late Each year or so for more than a decade, a private member’s bill comes forward purporting to rescue pension plan members’ benefits when businesses fail. This year’s version, Bill C-228, is still a knee-jerk reaction that only sounds […]Crossed Wires: Does Fiscal and Monetary Policy Coordination Matter?
The onset of the pandemic saw a high degree of coordination between our monetary and fiscal authorities. The Bank of Canada lowered its overnight rate to its effective lower bound and engaged in quantitative easing, governments pumped in stimulus and support programs, and the Office of the Superintendent of Financial Institutions (OSFI) lowered its domestic […] Fighting Inflation: What to Do When the Bank of Canada and Ottawa Are Not In Sync
Canada’s monetary and fiscal authorities were highly coordinated through the onset of COVID-19. Since April 2021, however, inflation has far exceeded the top end of the Bank of Canada’s inflation target range – and the Bank is now sharply…Higher interest rates will cause a recession – how do we pick up the pieces? – Globe and Mail Op-Ed
While many have challenged the pace of the Bank of Canada’s interest-rate hikes, their likelihood of success and the extent to which further increases are merited, it has already become clear that, regardless, a recession is imminent. And while it remains to be seen how deep and how long that recession will be, there is no question it will hurt some more than others.
Will governments be there to pick up the pieces and manage the consequences of higher interest rates? If so, how, and in what ways can they help, given their rather precarious fiscal position, with Ottawa carrying $1.1-trillion in debt?
Among the many things that concern us are the distributional impacts of the looming downturn – some groups are…
Daniel Schwanen – Competition Policy Consultation Critical for All Canadian Businesses
From: Daniel Schwanen To: Canadian Competition Watchers Date: December 5, 2022 Re: Competition Policy Consultation Critical for All Canadian Businesses In the more than a decade since the last wide-ranging reforms to Canada’s Competition Act, our economy has undergone massive technological changes and related economic transformation. And late last month, Ottawa launched its much-anticipated consultation […] Forget ‘prudence’ and ‘restraint’ — Ottawa’s spending is accelerating – Financial Post Op-Ed
Before the federal government’s Fall Economic Statement last month, we often heard words like “restraint” and “prudence.” Less so afterwards. The statement’s projections confirm that every new forecast from Ottawa shows the federal government getting bigger faster, with every area of spending swelling more by the year.
The government’s last pre-COVID projections were in its 2019 fall statement. The final fiscal year in those projections was 2024/25, when federal spending was slated to hit $421 billion.
The government used the pandemic as an excuse to present no budget in 2020, an unprecedented failure for it and for Parliament as a whole. It did present a fall statement late in the year, however. To compare that…
Drummond, Sinclair – Steps to a First Class Canadian Health Information System
From: Don Drummond and Duncan Sinclair To: Canada’s Ministers of Health Date: December 1, 2022 Re: Steps to a First Class Canadian Health Information System We argued yesterday that an essential first step for addressing the multiplicity of Canada’s “health system” problems is a high-quality national health information system. It would help discern the causes and dimensions of current […]