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...

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...

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'...

Canada is in the happy position of being able to address its fiscal challenges not just through eliminating deficits, but also by promoting growth in the economy and the tax base. This report takes a two-pronged approach: first, an accelerated plan to achieve budgetary surplus in three years;...

Early 2020 presents Canada with two challenges: amenic economic growth, and nervousness about the federal government's fiscal stewardship. The C.D. Howe Institute's Shadow Federal Budget for 2020 addresses both. It contains a number of measures to improve the rewards from work, saving and...

The C.D. Howe Institute's Shadow Federal Budget for 2019 looks past the overspending and deficits the federal government has adopted as its fiscal signature since its election in 2015. Instead, our focus is on ensuring the competitiveness and dynamism of the Canadian economy in the near and...

The 2015 federal budget's reduction of the mandatory minimum withdrawals from registered retirement income funds (RRIFs) and similar tax-deferred accounts will reduce the risk that many Canadians will outlive their savings. Yet with yields on safe investments so low, and longevity continuing to...