No Easy Answers: Insights into Community Well-being among First Nations
Employment Key to Improving First Nations’ Community Well-Being Increased employment is crucial to improving the well-being of First Nations communities, and should be a high priority in the Prairie provinces which have the lowest employment rates and lowest per capita regional incomes across Canada. Author John Richards looks at data from Indigenous Services Canada’s Community Well-Being […] Employment Key To Improving First Nations’ Community Well-being
Increased employment is crucial to improving the well-being of First Nations communities, and should be a high priority in the Prairie provinces which have the lowest employment rates and lowest per capita regional incomes across Canada, says a new report from the C.D. Howe…Kronick, Robson – Making Sure Zombie Firms Aren’t Propped Up Post-covid
From: Jeremy M. Kronick and William B.P. Robson To: Bill Morneau, Minister of Finance Date: May 21, 2020 Re: Making sure zombie firms aren’t propped up post-COVID COVID-19 has put much of Canada’s economy on life support. As we emerge from the crisis and resume more normal activity, a challenge awaits. We do not want viable businesses to […] Once the crisis is over, we will need to let the zombie firms go – Financial Post Op-Ed
COVID-19 has put much of Canada’s economy on life support. As we emerge from the crisis and resume more normal activity, a challenge awaits. We do not want viable businesses to disappear. But we also do not want zombie firms to live on indefinitely.
Early in the crisis, governments reasonably prioritized supporting households and businesses through central banks, government lenders and transfer payments. Going big and broad made sense to help us survive the sudden stop.
We now need to navigate a different problem: letting firms go. In an ordinary year an amazing number of businesses in Canada appear and disappear. In 2017, 143,000 businesses came into existence — about one for every eight that already existed. That…
Laurin, Dachis – A Stimulus Plan To Restart The Job Market
From: Alexandre Laurin and Benjamin Dachis To: Finance Minister Bill Morneau Date: May 20, 2020 Re: A stimulus plan to restart the job market As governments partially lift their restrictions and economic activity resumes, many more employees will soon be asked to return to work, and new work opportunities will arise for the unemployed. Many people may hesitate to […] COVID-19 has stimulated a slew of ideas about how to revitalize the WTO in a post-pandemic world – Financial Post Op-Ed
We talk about saving the world from COVID-19. We also need to talk about saving global bodies like the World Trade Organization. Last week’s announcement of the early departure of WTO Director-General Roberto Azevedo creates an opening for some reassessment of its future role.
Once considered a paramount achievement in global institution-building, the WTO has been in difficulty since the Doha Round of negotiations collapsed over a decade ago. Endless squabbling among governments over its agenda and the recent paralysis of its dispute-settlement system as a result of U.S. stonewalling has only made things worse.
Now comes COVID-19, unleashing new tensions in international trade. On the one hand is the need to keep supply…
Financing Bridge Needed to Protect At-Risk Sectors as Canada Faces a Long, Hard Road to Recovery
Governments must work alongside private lenders to provide sustained support to bridge companies through the crisis, paying particular attention to sectors most likely to suffer a prolonged period of low demand even as the economy re-opens, according to a C.D. Howe Institute working group.
At its latest meetings on May 5 and May 12, the Crisis Working Group on Business Continuity and Trade discussed the risks and headwinds for economic recovery and the action that is needed to prevent “scarring” in key economic sectors – notably air travel, agrifood, petroleum, and tourism and accommodation.
The group of industry experts and economists noted if businesses face distress and a disorderly wave of insolvencies, the ability of…
Almos Tassonyi – From The Black Death To The Depression To Covid-19: Using Debt To Overcome The Municipal Fiscal Squeeze
From: Almos Tassonyi To: Municipal debt watchers Date: May 19, 2020 Re: From the Black Death to the Depression to COVID-19: Using Debt to Overcome the Municipal Fiscal Squeeze Despite the drumbeat of warnings of an imminent crisis in municipal fiscal ability to cope with the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic, the silence from the provinces has been […] Dwight Duncan on BNN – Financing bridge needed to protect at-risk sectors
Dwight Duncan, co-chair of the C.D. Howe Institute’s Crisis Working Group on Business Continuity and Trade, joins BNN Bloomberg to discuss the kind of government support needed for at-risk sectors amid the pandemic.
Ken Boessenkool – Ottawa Has The Tools To Replace The Cerb (part II)
From: Ken Boessenkool To: Bill Morneau, Minister of Finance Date: May 15, 2020 Re: Ottawa has the tools to replace the CERB (Part II) A separate Intelligence Memo summarized the impact on fictional families of the combination of the Canada Emergency Response Benefit (CERB) and the boosts to the Goods and Services Tax Credit and Canada Child Benefit from February […] Ken Boessenkool – Ottawa Has The Tools To Replace The Cerb (part I)
From: Ken Boessenkool To: Bill Morneau, Minister of Finance Date: May 15, 2020 Re: Ottawa has the tools to replace the CERB (Part I) Canadian governments moved swiftly and massively to provide personal supports to Canadians during the COVID crisis. This Intelligence Memo looks at income from three families in February before the crisis hit, in April when generous […] The Shifting Ground of Pension Design: Reflections on Risks and Reporting
Workplace Pensions in Flux, Rules Need Reform As workplace pensions evolve, rules and regulatory law should adjust to reflect the realities of the 21st century pension landscape. Bob Baldwin, a pension industry veteran, offers his personal reflections on the unhelpful hyperbole surrounding defined-benefit and defined-contribution plans and explores the way forward for workplace pension design. […]