The best lessons from abroad about reopening our economies are in Europe – Globe and Mail Op-Ed

With encouraging signs on the COVID-19 health front, and mounting evidence of the costs of containing it, attention has shifted to the world’s economies. This is a global pandemic, and many countries have begun to reopen on their own terms. Here in Canada, governments in Ontario, Saskatchewan, Prince Edward Island and New Brunswick have announced plans for lifting some constraints.

What can we learn from progress elsewhere?

Many jurisdictions we would like to imitate – Taiwan, South Korea, Hong Kong – are in a class of their own. They imposed targeted travel checks and restrictions early, built capacity exceeding ours to test for exposure to the virus or produce protective equipment, and implemented electronic monitoring…

Kyle Hanniman – Backstopping Provincial Debt: How The Bank Of Canada Made Its Move

Change accelerator: COVID-19 – Hill Times Op-Ed

“Our business is at an inflection point. We can continue down the path we’ve been on … or we can make the significant and difficult changes necessary, ” said Gavin Hattersley, Molson Coors CEO to The Globe and Mail recently, and so it may be with health care after COVID-19. Many crises have been predicted to produce lasting changes to society’s status quo ante, changes subsequently proven minimal to ephemeral, as Andrew Coyne recently noted his column in The Globe. It is just possible, however, likely even, that some long-advocated changes to health care’s organizational structure and ways of working will have been shown to be so effective that they will remain imbedded in the “new normal” when…

When the Smoke Clears: Tackling Disincentives to Work

April 27, 2020 – It’s time to consider the gradual winding down of emergency benefits and tackle disincentives to work, says the C.D. Howe Institute’s Crisis Working Group on Household Income and Credit Support.

Rather than extending the criteria for the Canada Emergency Response Benefit (CERB) to fill remaining support gaps, new targeted federal or provincial programs​ should be used to cover those still ineligible.

At their April 21 meeting, the group identified niche populations who are affected by COVID-19 but are falling through the cracks as they do not meet the CERB requirements, including working social assistance recipients and new entrants to the labour market. However, these support gaps should be…

Mawani, Hajee – Assessing How Ottawa’s New Wage Subsidy Lines Up With Ei And Cerb

Mark Zelmer – Facilitating An Exit Strategy For Bank Of Canada Market Interventions

Restart Playbook Must Balance Risk with Economic Cost: Crisis Working Group on Business Continuity and Trade

April 24, 2020 – Any framework for a gradual reopening of the economy should be transparent, pan-Canadian, and balance the risks of further transmission with the economic costs of leaving key sectors shut down, says the C.D. Howe Institute Crisis Working Group on Business Continuity and Trade.

In its meeting on April 21, the group of economists and industry experts, co-chaired by Dwight Duncan, Senior Strategic Advisor at McMillan LLP and former Ontario Minister of Finance, and Jeanette Patell, Vice-President of Government Affairs and Policy for GE Canada, discussed what the playbook for a gradual return to work should look like.

Recommended principles for this playbook are:

O’connor, Tal – Integrate Programs To Help Commercial Landlords And Tenants

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Expanded Bank of Canada Balance Sheet Requires Balancing Act: Crisis Working Group on Monetary and Financial Measures

April 23, 2020 – Between early March and mid-April, the Bank of Canada’s balance sheet more than doubled, dwarfing anything seen in 2008. Moreover unlike 2008, this increase has serious implications for future inflation, because the Bank’s increased liabilities are not the result of government deposits, but rather increased “settlement balances” or deposits by financial institutions, which increases the monetary base.

Once the pandemic and economic crisis passes there is no easy solution to the potential inflation problem arising from more money chasing fewer goods and services. Trying to unwind the Bank’s balance sheet by selling longer-term assets is fraught with political risk. Alternatively, while a floor system could help…

Business Tax Burdens in Canada’s Major Cities: The 2019 Report Card

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