An ongoing challenge for power markets worldwide is to assure sufficient continued investment to maintain reliability. A properly designed capacity market – in which plants receive payment for available supply capacity whether or not the power generator runs – may enable Ontario to increase...

Poor education outcomes for Aboriginals in Canada have long been a source of concern for Aboriginal leaders and the provincial and federal governments. Notably, sixty percent of young Aboriginal adults living on reserves in Canada lack high-school certification. As a result, they face severely...

High frequency trading (HFT) is taking world capital markets by storm, notably in the United States and the United Kingdom, where it accounted for about 50 percent of equities trading in 2012, and to a growing extent in other parts of Europe and in Canada. Are high frequency traders angels or...

Canadian specialist doctors are paid mainly through fee-for-service for the procedures they perform. Nationwide, more than 80 percent of surgical specialists’ income comes from fee-for-service payments that are negotiated collectively with provincial health ministries. Surgical specialists...

Crown corporations are business enterprises owned by governments – having been established to achieve a range of public policy goals, they tend also to have revenue-generating objectives. In the financial sector, the Crowns typically had their origins in a perceived lack of credit – a credit...

In the wake of the recent financial crisis, clusters – the spatial concentration of interrelated industries, specialized services, and customers – have again captured the attention of economists, policymakers, and consultants. Clusters are viewed by many as vital to the national economy, and...

Canada’s trade with countries of the Caribbean Community (CARICOM) is small. Yet because the region is one in which Canada has significant interests – including major Canadian investments in the region – and where it can make a difference, Canada’s approach to the current trade...

Canada’s governments have regularly missed budget spending and revenue targets during the last decade. Taken together, the spending overruns of federal, provincial and territorial governments have surpassed $53 billion in the last 10 years. If budget targets were met more accurately, current...

Canada’s system of dairy supply-management restricts the availability of milk to Canadian households, food processors and restaurants to maintain a higher price for milk and dairy products than Canadians would otherwise pay. The immediate beneficiaries of the system are Canadian dairy farmers...

In the 2013/14 budget, the Minister of Finance made a surprise announcement: the decision to merge CIDA with the (renamed) Department of Foreign Affairs, Trade and Development. A sensible move? If the intent is to link CIDA projects to Canadian resource developments overseas, probably no. If the...