This work provides a historical overview that identifies parallels between the fiscal challenges facing Canadian governments in the 1990s and those facing governments in 2011. It highlights how the federal government, as well as various provincial governments in the 1980s, failed to balance...

The discussion of the limitations of government and subsequent government failure is wholly absent from debate in Canada where, unfortunately, we still assume that governments act benevolently and without institutional constraints. That this is not true is plain to see in the pages of the...

In 2012, the federal government implemented changes to Old Age Security (OAS), one of three key income programs for seniors. While the main reform — an increase in the age of eligibility — is a positive first step in reforming programs for seniors in the face of historic demographic change,...

In recent years, evidence has accumulated that regional subsidies incorporated in federal programs are substantial, affect all parts of Canada, and often have a direct impact on everyday life. These arrangements are not well understood because the funding directed to them is entwined with...