Beyond its damage to Canadians’ health and their economy, COVID-19 strained public finances, and both highlighted and exacerbated gaps in governments’ accountability to legislators and voters.Spending by all senior governments jumped in the 2020/21 fiscal year – up 7 percent on average...

Nova Scotia faces a $89 billion fiscal burden – the future tax bill for increased healthcare costs over the next half-century – and should prepare now for the coming demographic squeeze, says a report released today from the C.D. Howe Institute. In “Delivering Healthcare to an Aging...

The budgets governments present around the beginning of their fiscal years and the financial statements they publish in their annual reports after their fiscal years have ended are critical tools for legislators and voters to hold them accountable. The transparency of these documents to...

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 COVID-19 crisis and its impact on the revenues and expenses of all governments will make the fiscal capacity of Canada’s municipalities a pressing topic for years to come. All the more reason for municipalities to present budgets and other financial information that let Canadians...

In theory, the management of public funds by Canada’s senior governments – federal, provincial and territorial – reflects the preferences of Canadians, expressed through their elected representatives. In practice, however, the revenues and expenses of senior governments – and the...

Despite improvements over time, the quality of the financial information presented to legislators and the public by Canada’s federal, provincial and territorial governments remains uneven. Some governments stand out for the transparency, quality and timeliness of their financial documents;...

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...