Category Canadian economy
What is a University President Worth?
Along with the Canada geese returning home and the melting snow revealing buds of green growth, another sign of spring in Ontario is the unveiling of the sunshine list – those individuals in the Ontario public sector and broader public sector earning $100,000 or more. Included as always on the 2012 list are university salaries […]
Who is More Fiscally Sustainable: Ottawa or Queen’s Park?
Both the Federal and Ontario budgets are nearly upon us and the key watchword for both is going to be the sustainability of the public finances.
Test driving Canada’s new open data portal
Canada, following the lead of the US (http://data.gov), the UK (http://data.gov.uk/), and Australia (http://www.ands.org.au/) has created a new open data portal, http://data.gc.ca. The data portal contains all of Statistics Canada's CANSIM data, as well as data from the Department of Finance, Health Canada, Environment Canada, Transport Canada, Citizen and Immigration Canada, and so on. To try […]
Dealing with the Baby Boom: You Only Die Once
It has been a week of immersion in health economics for me. Last Friday, we had Herb Emery from Calgary visiting Lakehead and he gave a seminar presentation on generational balance and public health care spending in Canada. I also just got back from a workshop on health expenditure forecasting and along with last Friday’s […]
Why Dalton McGuinty Desperately Needs a U.S. Economic Recovery
Recent reports suggest that the federal government may be seeing some improvements on the deficit front due to increases in revenue. However, no such luck seems to be gracing Ontario. Indeed, the Drummond’s report forecast of continued lackluster revenue growth for Ontario due to its weak economy has placed Ontario’s government in a bind.
If I had a policy tardis…
Imagine it was possible to travel back in time, and tell the policy makers of the past everything that we now know about pay as you go pension (PAYG) plans. Life expectancies will increase, birth rates will fall, and the contributions required to sustain the schemes will grow. PAYG pensions will be blamed for discouraging savings, […]
Driving Investment: Public or Private?
Yesterday’s Statistics Canada release on public and private investment spending intentions noted that: “Canadian public and private organizations reported that they intend to invest $394.1 billion in construction and machinery and equipment in 2012, up 6.2% from investment in 2011.” Indeed, one story I came across mentioned how important public sector capital spending was going […]
An update on the apparently non-existent Quebec recession
It's been five or six weeks since I noted that there was something strange about the Quebec LFS employment numbers. A one per cent drop in employment in the space of two months looked like the ohmygodweareallgonnadie months of early 2009, but there didn't seem to be any supporting story for why it was happening […]
Update on PBO Report on benefits for the elderly
Since my original post on the PBO Report (pdf), I have had a very useful email exchange with Chris Matier, the author of the Report. (It is to the PBO's credit that they really do want people to understand what they are saying, and are prepared to spend the time to help us.) This post […]
Gasoline Prices
Well, the Family Day long weekend is upon us and gasoline prices here in Thunder Bay have spiked up again. Last week, gasoline in Thunder Bay was about $1.17 a liter and right now it is about $1.30 though prices are a bit lower on the south side of town. Thunder Bay's prices have been […]
Worthwhile Canadian Initiative 
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