Festschrift literally means “celebration-writing” in German. And that is what this volume is. It celebrates the remarkable career of David Slater, which in the best Queen’s University tradition of John Deutsch and Clifford Clark spanned academia and public service, on the occasion of his...

Festschrift literally means “celebration-writing” in German. And that is what this volume is. It celebrates the remarkable career of David Slater, which in the best Queen’s University tradition of John Deutsch and Clifford Clark spanned academia and public service, on the occasion of his...

Quebec’s relative growth performance with Ontario has always been an issue of concern for economic historians. In his paper Pierre Fortin discusses trends in Quebec’s real domestic income relative to that in Ontario over the last half-century. He finds that per capita real domestic income in...

Interprovincial trade barriers are a drag on Canadian productivity and send an embarrassing message to international investors.Despite some past progress in reducing them, they remain an irritant to our economic union. Trade liberalization as pursued by Alberta and British Columbia in the TILMA...

William B.P. Robson, a co-author with David Slater of a series of papers on pension issues, has written an ambitious survey of the state of Canadian economic policy in the areas of pensions and health care. He argues that it is appropriate to tackle both issues in the same paper because they are...

It is well recognized that the incomes of the elderly are on average much lower than those of the non-elderly reflecting their limited participation in the labour market. But do the elderly have lower levels of economic well-being? Indeed, the financial circumstances of the elderly differ...

This paper provides an interpretive synopsis of the results of a conference on inflation-induced distortions in financial reporting and taxation held in October 1981 at the height of the post-war inflation. It provides analysis of the magnitudes of the likely distortions in reporting and...

This paper reviews the issues that would arise if Quebec were to separate from Canada. It also presents quantitative estimates of the likely orders of magnitude of their economic impact both on Quebec and the Rest of Canada. Its overall conclusion is that Quebec would be much harder hit than the...

This paper argues that the two-percentage point cut in the GST to 5 per cent proposed by the Conservatives in the January 2006 Canadian federal election and implemented in the 2007 budget was not “stupid” as suggested by many economists. To the contrary, it fortuitously turned out to provide...

This paper discusses the pros and cons of establishing a system of indexed bonds as a means of assisting employers in the event that governments (federal and/or provincial) should require them to adjust pension payments under the pension plans for inflation. The main body of this paper is...