This paper argues that the two-percentage point cut in the GST to 5 per cent proposed by the Conservatives in the January 2006 Canadian federal election and implemented in the 2007 budget was not “stupid” as suggested by many economists. To the contrary, it fortuitously turned out to provide...

This paper discusses the pros and cons of establishing a system of indexed bonds as a means of assisting employers in the event that governments (federal and/or provincial) should require them to adjust pension payments under the pension plans for inflation. The main body of this paper is...

This paper examines the need for the parent and grandparent immigration program in Canada and provides critical observations on its objectives and operations and offers empirical estimates on its costs. And, as a contribution to the Government’s recently launched consultations on how to...

This paper reviews the issues that would arise if Quebec were to separate from Canada. It also presents quantitative estimates of the likely orders of magnitude of their economic impact both on Quebec and the Rest of Canada. Its overall conclusion is that Quebec would be much harder hit than the...

This paper examines the performance of the children of immigrants (2nd generation immigrants) to Canada using data from the 2006 Census. As the composition of immigration inflows has shifted after 1980 from the traditional European source countries to the Third World, the analysis focuses on the...

The period from 1971 to 1974 was one of fundamental change in the structure of the Canadian system of taxation. From the federal budget of June 18, 1971, which brought the long process of tax reform to a close, to the introduction of the personal income tax indexing scheme, the variety and...

The purpose of this paper is to identify the most important knowledge gaps on interprovincial barriers to labour mobility in Canada, and to shed some light on potential conceptual, methodological, and data issues associated with research in this area. Consequently, it provides an overview of the...

This paper compares policies with respect to seasonal unemployment in the five Nordic countries with Canada. A key finding of this study is that unlike Canada Nordic countries do notspecifically address seasonal employment. Another was that in spite of the weather fluctuations in seasonal...

This paper summarizes the state of knowledge on internal barriers to trade in goods, services and flows of capital, examines their cost to the economy, and presents some options for addressing the important barriers that remain. A companion paper examines barriers to labour mobility in Canada...

This article presents my response to methodological questions about the incidence and impact of the Canadian Goods and Services Tax raised by W. Irwin Gillespie.