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 […]
The Nobel for Trump? Why not the Booker Prize for fiction instead?
The recent roller coaster of American stock market performance, with a precipitous increase in market values coming during the same week as more than 30 million had Americans filed for unemployment, has starkly revealed the fiction of President Donald Trump and his congressional cheerleader’s contention that the economy’s fundamentals are strong. Nothing could be further […]
Yas, (welfare) queen: Conservatives revive myth in attempt to curb the CERB
OTTAWA—Does the Conservative Party of Canada actually like Canada, or Canadians? Not even Michelle Rempel Garner could be bothered to stay in the country during lockdown, given she’s buggered off to the U.S. #AndrewScheer was trending and that never turns out well for him. Turns out, he wants to kick Canadian workers off the welfare […]
Unprecedented federal deficits sustainable in short term, say economists, but ‘exit ramp,’ post-pandemic planning needed now
With an anticipated federal deficit of more than $250-billion this year, the largest projected budgetary deficit on record, some economists say that emergency spending at this level may be sustainable in the short-term, but there is likely more spending to come—and that it’s still too early to judge the future state of the economy now […]
Taxing Canadian expats not the silver bullet for generating post-COVID revenue
Chandra Arya, the Liberal MP for Nepean, Ont., recently argued for changing the current residency-based taxation approach to the U.S. citizenship-based taxation (CBT) approach, understating the complexity involved in making such a change and overstating the potential benefits. (Similarly, Andrew Caddell argued in his April 22 Hill Times column that “the three million Canadians abroad […]
‘Pandemic bump’ pushes March lobbying up 60 per cent over last year
The flood of influencers contacting officials in March increased communication by almost 60 per cent compared to the year before, part of what lobbyists describe as a “pandemic bump” in activity they expect to be the new normal as industry, associations, and governments respond to the impacts of COVID-19. Lobbyists filed 2,329 communication reports in […]
Ottawa’s relief measures for businesses could soar to more than $9.1-billion, says PBO
One of the federal government’s relief measures to support businesses and enterprises during the COVID-19 pandemic could cost more than $9.1-billion, according to analyses released Friday by the Parliamentary Budget Officer. The PBO estimated that the Canada Emergency Business Account will cost $9.1-billion for fiscal year 2020-21, while the feds’ loan guarantee program for small- […]
