Sands and MacKenzie – New Rules for NAFTA
From: Christopher Sands and Colin MacKenzie To: Concerned Canadians Date: July 13, 2017 Re: New Rules for NAFTA As renegotiation on the North American Free Trade Agreement gets underway there is one fundamental change on the US side that promises to change the dynamic. This time there are 535 extra chefs in the kitchen. Under […]Ben Dachis – How to Kickstart the Infrastructure Spending Boom
From: Benjamin Dachis To: Finance Ministers across Canada Date: July 12, 2017 Re: How to Kickstart the Infrastructure Spending Boom Governments across Canada are planning one of the largest collective infrastructure investments in history. With hundreds of billions of dollars of infrastructure investments on the books, governments need to find a way to pay for […]Bank of Canada bets on growth with interest rate hike: Globe and Mail Op-Ed
Canadian monetary policy has just seen one of its most significant U-turns in recent years. On May 24, the Bank of Canada announced that it was holding its overnight rate steady. The tone of the announcement was less dovish than the previous one, but contained nothing to indicate impending rate increases. Shortly after the May announcement, markets were predicting a 5-per-cent chance of a rate increase in July. However, in the days preceding Wednesday’s announcement, that probability surpassed 90 per cent. With the bank increasing rates on Wednesday, how did we get so quickly from there to here?
Let’s start with the case for the rate hike. Unemployment has fallen to 6.5 per cent, GDP growth in the first quarter of 2017 was robust…
Christopher Sands on BNN – Canada’s charm offensive ahead of NAFTA renegotiations
Christopher Sands, director of the Center for Canadian Studies at Johns Hopkins University joins BNN to talk about Canada turning to individual U.S. states ahead of NAFTA talks.
Wyonch and Busby – The Great Minimum Wage Debate: How to Balance Good Intentions and Evidence
From: Rosalie Wyonch and Colin Busby To: The Ontario Minister of Labour, Kevin Flynn; and Concerned Ontarians Date: July 11, 2017 Re: The Great Minimum Wage Debate: How to Balance Good Intentions and Evidence The prospect of a $15 per hour minimum wage in Ontario, as of January 1, 2019, has set off heated debate […] Jeremy Kronick on CTV – A Remarkable Change
Jeremy Kronick, Senior Policy Analyst with the C.D. Howe Institute says the macroeconomic effects of the rate increase are yet to be seen.
Steve Ambler on BNN – Why the Bank of Canada may want to hold off on a rate hike
Steve Ambler, David Dodge chair in monetary policy at the C.D. Howe Institute tells BNN reasons why the Bank of Canada should wait until September to hike.
Jeremy Kronick on CTV – What happens to debt loads?
Jeremy Kronick, Senior Policy Analyst with the C.D. Howe Institute weighs in on the possibility of an interest rate hike from the Bank of Canada.
James Coleman – Be Careful What You Wish For: Energy Transport Investors Need Certainty to Build the New Energy Economy
From: James Coleman To: The New B.C. Government Date: July 7, 2017 Re: Be Careful What You Wish For: Energy Transport Investors Need Certainty to Build the New Energy Economy The Kinder Morgan Trans Mountain pipeline has been approved by the federal government, which has exclusive authority to authorize interprovincial projects. Nevertheless, the new NDP-Green […] Bank of Canada Should Hold Overnight Rate at 0.50 Percent Next Week; Hike to 1.25 Percent by July 2018: C.D. Howe Institute Monetary Policy Council
July 6, 2017 — In a tight vote, the C.D. Howe Institute’s Monetary Policy Council (MPC) called for the Bank of Canada to keep its target for the overnight rate, the very short-term interest rate it targets for monetary policy purposes, at 0.50 percent at its next announcement on July 12, 2017. The MPC called for the Bank to hike to 0.75 percent at the following announcement in September, with further hikes to 1.00 by January 2018 and 1.25 by July 2018.
The MPC provides an independent assessment of the monetary stance consistent with the Bank of Canada’s 2 percent inflation target. William Robson, the Institute’s President and CEO, chairs the Council.
Council members make recommendations for the Bank of…
The Knowledge Deficit about Taxes: Who It Affects and What to Do About It
The public’s knowledge gap on taxes leads to higher rates of tax avoidance, undermines trust in the government, and causes lower use of social programs, according to a new report from the C.D. Howe Institute. The report entitled The Knowledge Deficit about Taxes: Who It Affects and What to Do About It, by Antoine Genest-Grégoire, […]