Who’s going to blink first on Freeland’s budget?
Budget preparation is not just about the spending priorities of the government. It is also about crafting a plan that would be election-ready should the opposition parties decide to defeat the government. In the upcoming budget, the government will be working to try and trap the opposition, while the other parties will be trying to […]
Inside Grit caucus: Trudeau ‘emphatic’ no spring election unless opposition parties trigger one, say Liberal MPs
Barring a major surprise from opposition parties, a potential spring election is now off the table on the upcoming budget because of the spread of COVID variants in Canada, the slow and sluggish vaccination rollout, and the possibility of a third wave hitting Canada in the coming weeks, according to last week’s national Liberal caucus […]
Pre-budget pitches, virtual ‘Hill days’ push February lobbying
The promise of the first federal budget in more than two years, planned legislation to address online hate, and pandemic-related health concerns drove the lobbying efforts in February of some of the busiest groups as Parliament returned for its first sitting of 2021. Last month, lobbyists filed 3,223 communication reports in the federal registry, a […]
Budget will set the stage for how well we emerge from the pandemic
TORONTO—The federal budget on April 19 will set the stage for how well we emerge from the pandemic and what kind of country we start to build over the next five years. Done right, the budget will push and pull Canada towards a new and more productive economy. That really has to be the overriding […]
The time to act on EI sickness benefit reform is now
Under normal circumstances, the government’s task of deciding what items to include in a budget is incredibly difficult. With no shortage of aspirational goals to achieve and election promises to fulfill, the choices are difficult. This year, the federal budget is being decided during a time of utmost unusual circumstances. COVID-19 will no doubt be […]
Next budget a ‘critical moment’ in economic recovery for women, say experts
Following a year of economic dislocation that has hit Canadians from all walks of life hard, experts say the fallout from the pandemic has had a disproportionate impact on women, and that the next federal budget must include targeted support for those who have been hit the hardest. Carrie Freestone, an economist with the Royal […]
Canadians awaiting competing visions of a post-pandemic recovery from the government and opposition parties
Justin Trudeau’s government is expected to unveil its budget in the coming weeks, and Canadians are eagerly waiting on the governing Liberals and opposition Conservatives to elucidate their competing visions of the post-pandemic recovery. Considering the recent ramping up of the vaccination rollout, Canadians expect to turn the page on the devastating pandemic in the […]
DND can’t allow a quarter-trillion-dollar program to proceed unchallenged
The Naval Association of Canada (NAC) just released a paper commenting on the recent report by the Office of the Parliamentary Budgetary Officer (PBO) regarding the Canadian Surface Combatants (CSC). Unfortunately, in its attempt to provide context and underscore the complexity of the program it made a number of significant errors. First, the NAC paper […]
Government to ask MPs to approve $142-billion, to start with, to cover costs in 2021-22
The government will ask MPs to approve $142-billion in spending to keep it running through the 2021-22 fiscal year. Senior Ministers Deb Schulte (King-Vaughan, Ont.) tabled the main estimates in the House of Commons on Feb. 25. Those estimates give a partial projection of the federal government’s planned spending for the coming year. The “voted” […]
Feds urged to boost electric vehicle incentive program, allow used cars to qualify
Experts and stakeholders are urging the federal government to not only top up the electric vehicle incentive program, but also expand the eligibility criteria to allow used vehicles to qualify so lower-income Canadians can better take advantage of the program. “There’s a ton of evidence electric vehicle [EV] incentives are effective at driving the adoption […]
