Business investment in Canada lags investment in the United States and in other advanced economies. The gap has widened during the COVID-19 crisis, notably in intellectual property products. Without public policies that promote saving and investment, Canadian workers will not get the capital...

This paper sets out to investigate two issues: first, it briefly provides a retrospective look at whether the stance of monetary policy was appropriate for hitting the Bank of Canada’s inflation target during 2018 and 2019, and second, it examines how to determine in real time whether monetary...

Technological change is a driving force behind economic growth. It can improve productivity for existing goods and services, meaning the same output can be achieved with fewer inputs, or more can be produced with the same amount of human labour. Technologies also enable the development of new...

When the British Columbia government announced in 2018 that it would implement a publicly accessible registry of beneficial ownership of land, hopes were high that the registry would effectivelycombat the province’s money laundering problem. However, in the ensuing months, the BC government...

To provide a comparative view of electricity costs across Canada, this Commentary presents cost estimates for each province’s electricity system in 2018 and monthly costs facing representative consumer profiles in each province for 2019. In 2018, Ontario, Nova Scotia and Alberta had the...

The pandemic has highlighted and amplified the economic, social and health vulnerability of many Canadians. There is much that should be done. But how much can be tackled without risking large costs in the future? And what are the most effective and efficient approaches? Canadians should weigh...

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...

The importance of Canada Revenue Agency (CRA) audits to the administration of the Canadian tax system is self-evident. So is the need for CRA to conduct high-quality audits. While audit outcomes are subject to appeals and court challenge, it is not desirable to rely frequently on appeals and the...

The power and knowledge imbalance between traditional professionals and consumers is often large enough to warrant standard setting by governments and self-regulatory organizations in order to protect the health, safety or financial integrity of consumers. In many cases, however, the need to...