The January 2009 federal budget proposed funding a “Canadian Secured Credit Facility” as part of an economic action plan. This Facility will allocate up to $12 billion to purchases of term asset-backed securities (ABS) for loans and leases on vehicles and equipment. The Facility will be...

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...

In the last several years, the financial situation of the Quebec Pension Plan (QPP) has been deteriorating, a trend evidenced by the latest actuarial projections. In this e-brief, Senior Policy Analyst Alexandre Laurin points out how last year’s losses at the Caisse de dépôt et placement du...

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...

Inflation and taxation are a painful combination. Money losing its purchasing power hurts on its own, but tax provisions that ignore inflation can multiply the pain for earners, savers, and recipients of benefit programs as well.This E-Brief identifies problematic interactions between inflation...

Tax rules requiring RRIF withdrawals need revamping. Longer lives and lower returns increase the likelihood that mandatory minimum withdrawals will leave seniors with negligible income from their tax-deferred saving in their later years.Government impatience for revenue should not force holders...

Low-income Canadian families with children encounter high “all-inclusive” tax rates that could discourage parents from working more or entering the workforce, argues a new C.D. Howe Institute report.In “The Paycheck Blues: Why Extra Work is often Not Worth the Effort for Lower-income...

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...

December 19, 2019 – Tax-Free Savings Accounts (TFSAs) have had great success over the past decade, but could use a tune-up, says a new report from the C.D. Howe Institute.In “TFSAs: Time for a Tune-Up,” author Alexandre Laurin argues that after a decade in existence, there is now enough...