Gullo, Eaton, Schwanen – Let’s Stop Our Inter-Provincial Economic Friction
From: Michael Gullo, Michelle Eaton, Daniel Schwanen To: Canadians Concerned About Prosperity Date: March 21, 2022 Re: Let’s Stop Our Inter-Provincial Economic Friction If we can find a small silver lining in the COVID-19 pandemic, it has been the increased collaboration between orders of government; in particular, the federal government and its provincial and territorial counterparts. Fostering this collaboration […] Canada has blown through our fiscal guardrails. When will our federal budgets reflect that? – Globe and Mail Op-Ed
The budget that federal Finance Minister Chrystia Freeland will present shortly will reveal whether the government is serious about putting the national finances on to a sustainable track.
There is room for doubt. Since 2015, the government had been running deficits larger than it promised, and larger than a strong economy justified. Then it responded to the COVID-19 pandemic with debt-financed spending on an unprecedented scale.
To assuage concerns about soaring federal debt – concerns heightened by the government’s equally unprecedented failure to present a budget at all in 2020 – the Finance Minister introduced a new concept in the government’s fall economic statement that year: fiscal…
Perrault, Haley – Picking up the Twenties: A Simple Proposal for Internal Free Trade
From: Jean-François Perrault and James A. Haley To: Internal Trade Watchers Date: March 18, 2022 Re: Picking up the Twenties: A Simple Proposal for Internal Free Trade Internal trade barriers are universally understood to needlessly hobble Canadian prosperity even as a “collective action problem” prevents any serious reform. Tariffs on interprovincial trade are prohibited under the Constitution Act, […] The way Canada reviews foreign investments is out of date – iPolitics Op-Ed
Canada’s process for reviewing foreign investments is too opaque, and protects neither our economic nor our national-security interests.
Ottawa should therefore follow Washington’s lead and create a system wherein certain transactions must be cleared before an investment is ever made.
The timing couldn’t be better: Earlier this month, Innovation, Science and Industry Minister François-Philippe Champagne announced a review of Canadian’s Competition Act. The minister should leverage this moment to create a tailor-made solution for foreign investment reviews, as well.
Rather than prioritizing national security, the current regime is more concerned with investors. Canadian companies and their advisers would all benefit…
Policy is making us house-rich, everything-else-poor – Financial Post Op-Ed
In the fall of 2020, barely noticed amid the stresses of COVID-19, Canada’s economy passed a peculiar milestone. Residential investment surpassed all other business investment — more than for nonresidential structures, machinery and equipment, and intellectual property products combined. That was unprecedented. As recently as the early 2000s, it would have been inconceivable. As a nation, we risk ending up with nice roofs over our heads, but without the incomes we need for everything else we want. House-rich, and everything-else-poor.
Because a growing economy and inflation make recent experience hard to compare with what happened decades ago, it helps to measure investment relative to GDP. Until the…
Kevin Comeau – Combatting Money Laundering to Help Ukraine
From: Kevin Comeau To: Canadians Concerned About Oligarchs Date: March 16, 2022 Re: Combatting Money Laundering to Help Ukraine For more than 20 years, our weak anti-money laws have enabled corrupt politicians, criminals, and tax cheats from around the world to launder billions of dollars in Canadian real estate without disclosing the true owner. Canada has the opportunity to […] Neil Alexander – Canada’s Leadership in Deploying Small Modular Reactors – Developing Momentum
From: Neil Alexander To: Canadian Nuclear Watchers Date: March 15, 2022 Re: Canada’s Leadership in Deploying Small Modular Reactors – Developing Momentum Provinces are making significant progress towards the deployment of small modular nuclear reactors (SMRs.) In December, Ontario Power Generation (OPG) selected GE-Hitachi as its partner to build a business case for a 300-megawatt unit at its Darlington […] S4 E5: Combatting Money Laundering to Help Ukraine with Kevin Comeau
C.D. Howe Institute · S4 E5: Combatting Money Laundering to Help Ukraine with Kevin Comeau Cutting-off Vladimir Putin and his enablers from global finance is the world’s primary weapon against the Ukraine-Russia War. But as Kevin Comeau writes in his latest Intelligence Memo, it’s a weapon weakened by bureaucracy in Canada. Drummond, Sinclair – How To Spend Less On Healthcare
From: Don Drummond and Duncan Sinclair To: Canadians Concerned About Healthcare Date: March 14, 2022 Re: How to Spend Less on Healthcare Health spending now consumes some 12.7 percent of Canada’s GDP, swollen temporarily by the cost of COVID-19 exigencies, but once settled down is still likely to grow at 5 to 6 percent per year, exceeding by […] En guerre économique contre la Russie – La Presse Opinion
La puissante contre-attaque occidentale ne parviendra pas à stopper l’agression barbare subie par les Ukrainiens, mais imposera à la Russie un lourd tribut. Tous les pays pâtiront du conflit, certains plus que d’autres.
Vladimir Poutine affirme que l’Ouest a déclaré une guerre économique à la Russie. Pour une fois, il dit vrai. Nos gouvernements ont imposé les sanctions les plus sévères, décuplées par la réaction des marchés et des entreprises.
La première ronde de mesures a frappé les oligarques, le président et son cercle rapproché avec des interdictions de séjour et le gel de leurs avoirs à l’étranger.
Ensuite, on a débranché plusieurs banques russes du réseau mondial de messagerie SWIFT, qui facilite les…
Ambler, Kronick – The Upward Rate March
From: Steve Ambler and Jeremy Kronick To: Canadians Worried About Inflation Date: March 11, 2022 Re: The Upward Rate March The Bank of Canada’s decision this month to start raising its target for the overnight rate of interest reflects its recognition that inflation has turned out to be higher and more persistent than expected. Slack in the economy has […]Getting Serious: A Shadow Federal Budget for 2022
The federal government needs to get serious about preparing Canada to meet future challenges by focusing on achieving growth and fiscal sustainability in its 2022 budget, according to the C.D. Howe Institute’s latest Shadow Budget.
In “Getting…