Under the current Employment Insurance (EI) system, long-lasting EI benefits are more easily accessed in regions with high unemployment rates than in regions with low unemployment rates where workers face tighter restrictions to access short-lived benefits. This complicated screening procedure,...

Fiscal pressures and sovereign debt concerns around the world are intensifying scrutiny of government finances. Even in Canada, where these pressures and concerns are less acute, federal and provincial fiscal controls could be better. Some Canadian governments still present budgets to their...

Government spending overruns and missed revenue targets remain a common occurrence in Canada. Countrywide, spending overruns by the federal, provincial and territorial governments over the past decade exceeded $70 billion, limiting debt reduction and tax relief in earlier years, and materially...

Canada's greying workforce will spell big fiscal trouble for future taxpayers, according to a new C.D. Howe Institute report. In “The Fiscal Implications of Canadians' Working Longer,” authors William Robson, Colin Busby, and Aaron Jacobs find that demographic change is squeezing the budgets...

Each spring, Canada's federal, provincial and territorial legislatures vote budgets that set out their spending and revenue goals for the fiscal year. Budget votes are critical for holding governments accountable to legislators, and in turn to voters and taxpayers. Over the last decade, however,...

The federal government should recognize the limited success of past attempts to achieve healthcare reform with conditional transfers to the provinces and instead focus more on independent initiatives, according to a new C.D. Howe Institute report. In “The Naylor Report and Health Policy:...