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...

It is often said that the private sector is in a good position to manage project costs and meet deadlines, but not, generally, to fund or finance projects. The underlying argument runs as follows: because the interest rate on government borrowings (the government’s financing cost) is lower...

Policymakers are concerned that Canadian businesses invest too little in innovative processes, on the view that this inhibits productivity, growth, and incomes. The evidence can be found in Canada’s low rate of growth in patent registrations and low rates of commercialization of new products...

Canadians can be proud of their country’s relatively strong recovery from the 2009 slump, but should not be complacent. Canada’s fiscal situation is strong only by comparison with the dire situations in other major advanced countries. Our national saving rate is too low to support needed...

All developed countries with universal healthcare systems provide universal coverage for prescription drugs – except Canada. Instead, Canadian provinces allocate limited public subsidies for prescriptions drugs, leaving the majority of costs to be financed out-of-pocket and through private...

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...

Too many drinking water and wastewater systems across Canada threaten public health and the environment. In this report, the author writes that many of the municipally owned and operated systems that treat and distribute drinking water perform poorly and lack the financial resources and...

Expectations for investment returns play an important role in establishing business capital cost and capital structure, as well as influencing individual savings behaviour, risk-taking, and long-term funding of institutional obligations such as pensions. Proper and realistic forecasting makes...

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...