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...

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...

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...

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...

Providing a comprehensive group-taxation regime would bring fairness, simplicity and certainty of tax outcome for Canadian corporations. Canada’s current approach leads to higher administrative and transaction costs, unfairness among different types of corporations, uncertainty, and weakened...

The 2015 edition of the C.D. Howe Institute’s annual Shadow Federal Budget lays out a prudent fiscal course in the face of a challenging world economic environment, bolstering the confidence of Canadians in the sustainability of their public finances. It supports economic growth with tax...

Low income seniors face extremely heavy tax burdens across Canada, according to a new C.D. Howe Institute report. In “Who Loses Most? The Impact of Taxes and Transfers on Retirement Incomes,” authors Finn Poschmann and Alexandre Laurin show that seniors can be hit hard by taxes and benefit...

Government policymakers should not overlook enhancing RRSPs as a way to boost retirement savings by Canadians, according to a report from the C.D. Howe Institute. In “The Overlooked Option for Boosting Retirement Savings: Higher Limits for RRSPs,” author Alexandre Laurin finds that those who...

Important changes are now underway to Canada Pension Plan “adjustment factors” that will increase the penalty for those who retire before age 65, and will raise the amount of additional CPP benefits available for those who delay retirement beyond 65. The new pension adjustment factors have...