Reopening the Economy Policy Briefing
Government must do more to help northerners and their businesses bounce back
As the number of confirmed cases of COVID-19 continue to decline across the country, it feels as though we are at a point in the crisis where all of us are trying to catch our collective breath, take stock of where we are, examine what is working and what isn’t, and ready ourselves for whatever […]
House suspension deal offers ‘insufficient’ scrutiny of feds’ spending amid COVID, say politicos
The Liberal-NDP agreement to extend Parliament’s suspension of regular sittings and limit debate over an $87-billion spending bill is skirting scrutiny and “completely insufficient,” argue politicos, with at least one Grit MP frustrated by the move. The suspension will remain until Sept. 21, with four formal sittings through the summer. Meanwhile, the Special Committee on […]
Unparalleled BoC bond purchasing welcomed to move country from ‘defence to offence,’ says Senator Loffreda
Given continued global financial market turmoil borne from the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic, the Bank of Canada’s recent and unparalleled foray into bond purchasing comes as a welcome economic stimulus policy to “get confidence back into the market” and to “get the consumer working again,” according to Independent Senator Tony Loffreda. And with a new Bank […]
Not playing house: women’s work deserves equitable treatment in COVID recovery
OTTAWA—The die has been cast. Game on, Canada. Last week, Shopify announced that it is switching to a “digital by default” model of human resources that requires all 5,000 of its employees to work from home indefinitely. This move follows similar ones by Twitter, Square, and Facebook to move permanently to a work-from-home model, while […]
Environment, resource development agenda among April’s top-lobbied files
COVID-19 is offering important lessons for Canada’s approach to climate change and the need for green programs to be built into economic recovery, say some of the groups lobbying the ministers focused on these files and pushing them to the top of the list during the pandemic. Over the last two months, Natural Resources Minister […]
Time for Morneau to open the books
Canada’s government is spending money faster than ever before, as it rolls out a broad relief package designed to prop up the economy amid the COVID-19 crisis. It’s time for an update on the government’s finances. The money being spent has been borrowed, as the government was already running regular deficits before the crisis. The […]
‘Clock is ticking’: feds should release fiscal update, recovery plan soon, says Page
Where are Bill Morneau’s new shoes? That’s the question being asked around Parliament Hill as a former parliamentary budget officer says that the “clock is ticking” for the government to release a fiscal update so Canadians can see its plan for a recovery from the economic crisis brought on by the coronavirus pandemic. The government […]
Monetary policy in the time of COVID: obscure, but vital, BofC gets a new governor
OTTAWA—Covering Ottawa for years, I wrote thousands of articles about economics, politics, and so forth. Of these, one article that received an unexpectedly huge public response concerned of all things the staid, hermetic Bank of Canada. The story recounted a quixotic court case intended to force Canada’s central bank to fundamentally reinterpret its mandate and […]
Putting off budget planning a poor way to map out the future
When Finance Minister Bill Morneau announced earlier this year that the Liberals would be presenting their first minority budget on March 30, there were a great number of questions to be answered. How would the Liberals be attempting to fulfill their campaign promises? Who would the government be talking to? What compromises was it going […]
