In the 2016 budget the Department of Finance announced that it intended to review a number of tax expenditures with the objective of identifying and eliminating poorly targeted or inefficient tax measures. In this article, the authors discuss the concept and theory of tax expenditures and then...

We employ a methodology that distinguishes between discretionary and non-discretionary changes in provincial and federal fiscal policy. We find substantial variation in the discretionary policy of Canadian governments, across both time and jurisdictions. We uncover a marked asymmetry in the...

The purpose of this paper is to present a methodology for calculating marginal effective tax rates (MRTRs) on the activities of financial institutions, particularly banks. The intent is to present the methodology in a "non-technical" manner, with the objective of reaching a broad audience of...