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...

Canada’s municipalities deliver services that are critical to their citizens’ quality of life. Those services require revenue from taxes, fees and transfers from other governments. Yet municipal budgeting is opaque: in most of Canada’s major cities, non-experts cannot make the simplest...

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...

The English version of this article can be found here: http://ssrn.com/abstract=2291144. “Le budget de la santé continuera de croître à un rythme de 4,8 % par année. [...] [L]es cibles de croissance des dépenses de programmes sont établies à 1,8 % pour 2013-2014....,” Discours Sur Le...

The 2016 edition of the C.D. Howe Institute's annual Shadow Federal Budget puts a sustainable financial position and fiscal path at the centre of its plans. Confidence that the country will successfully navigate an environment of slower global growth and population aging is an essential backdrop...

The 2015 federal budget's reduction of the mandatory minimum withdrawals from registered retirement income funds (RRIFs) and similar tax-deferred accounts will reduce the risk that many Canadians will outlive their savings. Yet with yields on safe investments so low, and longevity continuing to...

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...