Spending restraint is key to achieving a balanced federal budget over the next five years and should form part of Ottawa's March Budget. This Backgrounder demonstrates how to limit the rise in the federal debt by prudently reining in spending growth rather than raising taxes, so that past and...

Spending restraint is key to achieving a balanced federal budget over the next five years and should form part of Ottawa’s March Budget. This Backgrounder demonstrates how to limit the rise in the federal debt by prudently reining in spending growth rather than raising taxes, so that past and...

As Canada’s babyboom generation approaches retirement age, public concern about the adequacy of retirement income is mounting, note the authors. Most of the public debate has been about potential reform of the tax and fiduciary rules governing corporate pension plans, the possibility of...

The 2009 federal budget proposed a $40 billion economic stimulus package spanning two years and projecting a return to balanced budgets within five. The projected quick recovery of federal finances relies primarily on aggressive assumptions about future interest rates, growth of program...

Regionally based entry requirements and benefit durations prolong the persistence of unemployment and reduce economic incentives to adjust to labour-market conditions. Reforms aimed at equity are overdue. Regionally based criteria should be replaced by uniform, countrywide, employment insurance...

While the public debate over reforms to Employment Insurance centres on regional fairness in eligibility requirements, it is critical that the EI program remain affordable in good times and bad. To avoid pro-cyclical EI premium decreases during booms and harmful premium increases during...

In the 2011 Canadian federal election, the Conservative Party pledged to allow couples with minor children to split up to $50,000 of their incomes each year for tax purposes. Tax savings would arise to the extent that the spouses' marginal tax rates differ. Advocates of splitting claim an...

The Commentary released today its 2011 federal Shadow Budget with a five-step plan to end the flow of red ink in Ottawa ahead of the government's five-year timeline. In this paper, the authors show how Ottawa can return to budget surpluses in four years through more ambitious spending restraint...

A key question in Canada's pensions debate is whether Canadians will be able to maintain their living standards in retirement, and if policy needs to respond to the risk that some will experience painful declines. To date, it has been very difficult to estimate how current trends might affect...

Tax measures announced in the latest Quebec budget strike a balance between good economic outcomes and attention to fairness in how tax burdens are shared. The author assesses Quebec's budget measures according to their impacts on the tax burden and how well provincial taxes match citizens'...